


Emerald Crisis--Final Fantasy VII--

by RedWhaleStories



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Action/Adventure, Military
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-29
Updated: 2020-06-27
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:08:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 60,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23378146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedWhaleStories/pseuds/RedWhaleStories
Summary: Six years after Meteor Fall, the W.R.O. has established a new world government. Controlling the distribution of Materia, they form the Hunters, whose job is to stop Materia related crimes from smuggling to violence. With her flare for theatrics, it is decided that Yuffie Kisaragi should work within this group, but when a rebellion begins, she must decide who she can trust.
Kudos: 4





	1. Tutorial

** Final Fantasy VII **

The Emerald Crisis

Midgar Ruins: Outskirts\

Yuffie sat atop a hill in the wasteland and stared across the vast, dusty expanse. The ruins of Midgar were a dark shape in the night, distinct but without definition. She had her binoculars set for night-vision, but even still could hardly see anything in the green haze of the city’s skyline. With a sigh, she sat back and pressed a button on the holographic display of her armguard. “I can’t see anything in there. You’re sure it’s tonight?”

“Yes.” Shelke’s voice came in clear through the speaker in Yuffie’s ear.

“Then I need to get closer, because I’ve got nothing from where I am.” Yuffie stood. It was a moonless, starless night, and she dressed in a dark suit meant to blend. She clipped the binoculars onto the belt about and picked up her weapon, a large four-point shuriken named—Conformer—and slipped it into the sling across her back.

“Be careful, Yuffie Kisaragi.”

“Okay, mom.” She hopped from the hill where she was perched and started her approach toward the city. Yuffie travelled by foot, a rarity in that day and age. Monsters still roamed the Midgar wastes. Rumors had it that they were escaped experiments from old Shinra testing facilities that had long been abandoned. Yuffie honestly never gave it much thought.

“By the way, exactly how many of them are there supposed to be?”

“It was in the mission report.”

“Let’s just pretend that I didn’t read it,” Yuffie said. Midgar appeared in finer detail, the darkness giving way to somber greys and broken rubble. A chain link fence rattled under her feet as she hopped from it, onto a broken ledge, and from there onto a fractured pillar before landing in a derelict city street. “Let’s just pretend I never read them.”

“There will be five men in total, two buyers, two dealers. The first meeting should start in exactly five minutes and thirty-eight seconds. I am sending the location to you. Will you arrive on time?”

Yuffie checked the holographic interface again and pulled up the map. She smiled. “I’ll be fine. I’m not far off now.”

Midgar’s interior was twisted steel and stone wrapped in shadows. Buildings and debris were scattered around her. Sometimes, when she was bored on an assignment, she liked to take the pieces in her mind and try to fit them together, like a jigsaw puzzle. At that moment, she preferred to hop over them.

“You should worry more about them showing up.”

“In all of our records, you’re the only person who has ever been late to one of these deals.”

“That’s cold, Shelke. Real cold.” Yuffie hopped over a broken crane and landed quietly on the other side. She sprinted and leaped, flatting her body as she glided between two sheets of jagged steel. “Weapons?”

“Yes. And materia.”

“You think they would use their product?”

“Materia drains the energy of the one it is attuned to, not the energy of the stone.”

“Right, right. Now that I think about it, materia that’s been used synchs faster, doesn’t it? So, I guess they could technically charge more.”

“Technically, though few people who move materia illegally understand the intricacies of its use.”

“Which is why they will always be small-fries.”

“You have your equipment?”

Yuffie dropped down off of a highway painted with graffiti and rolled to a stop. She sprinted across the rooftop she was on and leapt to another nearby. “I’ve got enough. Don’t worry so much. They’re just a couple of thugs. What are they going to do me? I mean, I did help fight Sephiroth and, you know, save the world a few times.”

“Records state you were in the city during the final battle with Sephiroth.”

“I meant in spirit. I definitely was there in spirit.” Yuffie dropped down and slid to a halt behind a nearby ledge. “Now, hush, I see them.” She peeked her head out long enough to get a head count. Shelke was right, two cars were meeting in the dark, their headlights the only thing to see by. Three men on one side, two on the other. The three wore suits and brought back bad memories for Yuffie. The two that were buying were just regular street toughs.

“Buying from the big guys and using it for their games.” Yuffie shook her head. “Kids these days.”

“Please, maintain radio silence, Yuffie Kisaragi. You must confirm the sale before you can make the arrest.”

“You maintain radio silence.” Yuffie yawned. “Besides, there’s no way they’re not selling.” She stood.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m bored. And their faces need to be punched.”

“Hold position, Yuffie Kisaragi. You must confirm the sale before...”

“Possession of materia without a permit is against the law, anyway. You really think they have the paperwork signed for the stuff they’re peddling?”

“Hold.”

“Sorry? What? Can’t hear you, Shelke. You’re cutting out here.” Yuffie tapped her bracer and put Shelke on silent. Then, she dived from the building and landed on the soft earth below.

The five talked, shouting nonsense that Yuffie barely heard. Then, the suits went back to their car and pulled a chest from the trunk. They carried it out into the light and opened the lid, pulling a shining red sphere from inside. The sphere caught the light as they displayed it, and then they tossed it to one of the toughs.

The toughs looked it over, trading it between themselves. They talked among themselves, too, and approached the three suits cautiously. An envelope was produced and traded between them. The suits took it, pulled it open, and looked through it, and then they shook their heads. One of them pushed the lid back down on the chest and picked it up.

Yuffie grinned from the shadows and leaped forward. “Sale confirmed,” she said, and she spun through the air and kicked one of the toughs in the chest, knocking him to the ground while the materia fell from his hand. The remaining tough and three suits all stopped in place as she stood in their center, casting a smile at each of them. “Here’s your proof of purchase!”

The suits reacted first. The one with the chest sprinted around the car, toward the back, while the other two produced pistols from inside of her jackets and opened fired. Yuffie lifted her bracer and conjured a barrier. The bullets stopped a few feet in front of her, causing ripples in light where they hit the barrier.

She charged forward and directed her barrier to one suit while kicked the other suit hard in the stomach. Another kick to the chest sent him onto the hood of the car and left him unarmed. The suit behind her tried to move with her, to get behind her and shoot her in the back, but she used her bracer to knock his gun away before grabbing him by the jacket and pulling him into a head butt. He collapsed as she staggered away.

The suit behind the car drew his gun and opened fire on her from behind. She lifted her barrier and blocked the bullets while facing away from him, watching second tough as he moved. He had drawn a switch blade and had it ready. Despite his shaky legs, he made for her and lunged forward. His movements were heavy and clumsy, and she sidestepped it and lifted her knee up into his stomach. Soon, he was curled up on the ground, coughing.

The last suit she handled by leaping over the car—kicking another on the way—and spiraling through the air. She landed and swept his leg out from under him before wheeling around and landing a blow to his face with her bracer.

“And that, kids, is lunch.” She kicked the suit’s gun away as she stood over him. The first tough was up again. He was about to run, but Yuffie tossed confirmer in a way that placed it only a few feet in front of him and watched him go stiff. “Ah-ah, don’t you go anywhere, mister. You’re in big trouble, and we’re going to have to take you home to talk with your mother about all of this.” The tough shook and then sunk to his knees, head down, defeated. “Good boy.”

Yuffie was halfway to him when she heard a gun cock behind her. She turned just in time to hear a gunshot echo through the ruins. One of the suits had gotten up and put her in his sights when the gun was shot from his hand thrown into the darkness by the impact.

She met his awe and fright with a grin before kicking him across the face and throwing him to the ground. Then, she began handcuffing each one, as she spoke with her eyes in the ruins. “Good shooting, Daze. Though, I definitely had it under control.”

“Yeah. That’s why that guy had a gun on your back,” said the voice in her ear, smooth and familiar. It belonged to her partner, Daisy Gould, a sniper by trade who joined the W.R.O at a very young age. She, along with Yuffie and one other field agent, made up the bulk of the W.R.O. Materia Hunter squad. “And shouldn’t you unmute Shelke?”

Yuffie cuffed the one tough who was conscious and dragged him over by the jacket while he sobbed. “No. And I had my barrier up. I know you don’t really use materia much, but it takes more than a low caliber round like that to break through my protect spell, I can assure you.”

“While your materia is more advanced than most, it is still best to remain cautious and aware of your surroundings at all times, as ballistics tests have shown that even low caliber rounds, at a close enough proximity, can pierce barrier spell, Yuffie Kisaragi.”

“And hey, there’s Shelke. Finally figure out that I had you muted? Now, shush, I’ve got work to do.” She tossed the tough onto the pile and watched him bawl. “Oh, would you shut up? I’m not here for you.”

“Y-You’re not?”

“Son, would you look at yourself? You’re in a grubby hoodie and a pair of torn denim rags. You haven’t got any money, which means you haven’t got any information. In fact,” she took his hat and jammed it into his mouth, “just shut up. And stop that crying already.”

After tossing the tough aside, she righted one of the suits and pulled out her shuriken. Focusing her thoughts on the thunder materia attached to one of the blades, she filled it with a low charge and then touched it to his shoulder. The man jumped a few inches and bolted awake.

“Ah! Ah. Ah—huh.” The man looked around himself and blinked a few times. Then, he saw Yuffie and slouched. “Oh.” He looked at the tough, who looked back at him in teary-eyed terror, and then he looked at the three other unconscious men beside him, and finally back at Yuffie. “You’re going to interrogate me, aren’t you?”  
“Ding-ding-ding, we’ve got a winner. And what has he won? Well, he’s won an all-expense-paid trip to torture-ville, along with a free shock treatment for one if he doesn’t start talking. Fast.” Yuffie leveled her shuriken and held it to his face. The man could hear the charge humming through the steel. “Whose your pipeline? And I mean, really, who. I want names, numbers, embarrassing photos, everything you got.”

The suit spit at her, and though it missed, Yuffie felt it was important to teach him a lesson and tapped the shuriken to his shoulder again, just long enough to watch him hop. As he settled, she kicked him in the chest and pinned him on his back, the shuriken’s blade hovering inches over his eye.

“Spit again and I’ll see you smoking like burnt toast. Now, talk.”

-Disc One-

After Meteor Fall the world changed. Midgar, once the center of civilization and the throne of Shinra Inc., was reduced to scattered ruins, inhabited only by those unwilling to leave the slums or those unwelcome in the cities in general. With its president missing and no unified voice found, Shinra Inc. struggled to recoup before collapsing into itself. Those guilty were found and tried. Some were executed, some exiled, and without its head, the serpent was no more.

The worlds fell into anarchy. The only government it knew had collapsed from the political upheavals, narcissism, and efforts of both those inside of the system and those working outside of it. Just as everyone thought the world would end for good, the W.R.O. appeared. Rising from the wreckage, this World Regensis Organization was led by Reeve Tsuesti in the public eye and funded by a mysterious benefactor.

With Reeve at the head, the W.R.O. led the charge in the construction of Edge, a home for the refugees of post-meteor Midgar and slowly let their influence spread from there. Relief programs in Mideel, reconstruction for Junon, military support for areas targeted by brigands and criminals. The W.R.O. made a reputation for itself by being everything Shinra wasn’t. It had the trust of the people and the resources to help when no one else could, and it promised to rebuild the world, or at least to make it better wherever possible.

The cities of the world flocked to this new banner and the hope it offered, and the W.R.O. swelled. It drew both volunteers and benefactors, adding funds to their already endless supply and growing political power. After a time, it seemed that a new regime had replaced Shinra, and while there were some who feared this new, rising power, most people found safety in its open arms.

Two years after Meteor Fall, the three remnants of Sephiroth, a blight on the land, appeared, and the W.R.O. was there. Bahamut SIN wreaked havoc across Edge and, after Cloud and the Heroes of the Fall appeared to save the city, the W.R.O. was there with its limitless funds and bodies to restore the city and make it better.

A year later, Deepground surfaced, an old evil newly released with ties to Shinra, and the W.R.O. raised an army to meet them head on. Popularly, it was seen as another Shinra experiment gone wrong, cleansed by the new heroes, the W.R.O., who had been righting the old regime’s wrongs from day one. The Omega WEAPON woke, and the Vincent, helped by the planet’s new protectors, put it down.

Each new crisis averted earned the W.R.O. greater praise and support. Soon, they had bases in every part of the world and recruitment centers with them. Everyone welcomed the W.R.O. into their boarders, into their homes, and started obeying the laws the W.R.O. instituted.

That is how the Hunters came to be. Old Shinra materia caches were often found and opened, and illegal materia distribution became a problem. Roaming gangs or newly rising mafias would attain and weaponize the materia found. Deemed too dangerous for the populace, the Hunters were founded to seek out these illegal materia smuggling rings and bring them to a close.

The story goes that there are international materia smuggling syndicates seeking to horde both combat and recovery materia and use it to build a new regime equaling Shinra’s power. The W.R.O. has built the new force, the Hunters, to meet this problem head on and solve it before it grows too great.

Yuffie was first on the list and was asked personally by Reeve to work in the field, feeling she was particularly well-suited to the task. Five years after Meteor Fall, and one year after the founding of the W.R.O. Materia Hunters Force, Yuffie has worked all across the world, shutting down one ring after another, earning a name for herself with the public because of her efforts in Wutai and Cosmo Canyon.

A rise in illegal trade was found in Edge and the Midgar wastes. The numbers moved there aren’t the greatest seen so far but are rising quickly, and so Yuffie was called back to help and solve the problem before moving on to her next task.


	2. Disc One, Mission 1

Edge: Seventh Heaven Bar\

Yuffie was sleeping, as they say, the sleep of the dead. Her arms were dead, her legs were dead, and the rest of her was simply numb to the world. Late the night before, she came back to the bar and climbed in through the window, collapsing face-first onto the mattress in the spare bedroom which Tifa loaned out to her. A few seconds passed, and then she was soundly asleep until the very late morning.

Her senses returned to her slowly, starting with sound. The continuous ringing of her alarm drilled into her ears and forced her into a state of partial awakening. She groped across the mattress, across her messed blankets and pillows, to her nightstand, where her bracer rested. Thumbing the holographic display, the silenced the small, neon alarm clock that was shaking insistently at her. The ringing stopped and Yuffie, body hanging partway off of the bed, landed with her face to the floor and groaned.

Her room was lit already by the midday sun, its warm yellow light panting the walls and the floor. She winced as she opened her eyes and pulled the sheets from her bed off and over her. They gathered about her neck and chin but left her aching eyes uncovered. A final groan, and she laid there in defeated frustration, glaring sullenly at her window.

The sun glared back while the curtains danced.

Outside Edge was alive with people. Cars hummed up and down the street. Steam drifted in and out of view, moving wherever the wind willed it. It was nothing but a grimace to her as she struggled to standing and, in a final act of frustration, threw her crumpled sheets back onto the bed. She checked the time and took the holographic interface from her guard, fixing it to the belt of her shorts.

She shuffled to the bathroom, where she washed her face and brushed her teeth. This was followed by a more half-hearted attempt at further grooming, which was mostly her patting her hair and muttering at lot. At one point she scratched her rear. After that, she made it back into the hall and started toward the stairs.

The night had went long. By the time the paperwork was done, Yuffie was crawling into her bedroom at around dawn. The trouble was the W.R.O. command structure. The Hunters had limited holding cells and those only for the worst, who would be shipped out to W.R.O. HQ for interrogation or incarceration. Street toughs and low-level dealers were taken to the wardens, which was a chore on all sides.

When given the assignment, Yuffie had taken it under the assumption that the problem would be solved quickly and carried that with her into each new assignment. Edge, in particular, seemed incorruptible with its close proximity to the W.R.O. HQ, as well its deep roots in the organization. Even with its location—being so close to Shinra things were bound to be dug up—she never thought there would be so much work.

She was wrong. A month after her arrival, the Hunter’s Lodge—their makeshift HQ—was still undergoing finishing touches and materia smuggling was still unchecked. For the time Yuffie stayed with Tifa, who offered permanent housing in the bar for friends, and offer that was quickly taken and then taken advantage.

Back in her room Yuffie found socks and a shirt. Then, she lazily tied her boots. Her PDA chimed. She tapped it. “I’m awake already.”

“Good afternoon, Yuffie Kisaragi.”

Yuffie frowned. “Shelke, did you set my alarm? I don’t remember setting it last night.”

“Yes, I did.”

“How?”

“It isn’t difficult. The encryption on the model TPK-73 Holographic...”

“Know what? I don’t really care. Just don’t do it again.”

“Noted. We’ve process the dealers from last night and looked into their information. Interviews and interrogations were completed this morning.”

“I interviewed him yesterday, you know.”

“These interviews were formal, and the name came up again between all of the dealers. Wasteland Bar.”

Yuffie stretched. “Tell me about it.”

“It is technically within Edge, being built on the fringes, near Midgar. Records state that it is already being watched by warden forces due to suspected criminal activity.”

Yuffie grunted.

“It may be a staging area. Orders from Reeve are to go there and gather information.”

“Of course they are. Like he needs to tell me how to do my job.”

“This is infiltration, Yuffie Kisaragi, nothing else. Whatever you see, do not engage.”

Another yawn as she sauntered into the hallway. “Ah-huh.”

“Daisy will serve as back up. She should be there in thirty-minutes to pick you up, traffic permitting.”

Yuffie sighed. “Sounds like fun.”

“Good luck, Yuffie Kisaragi.”

“Yeah, yeah, won’t need it.”

-Disc One-

Yuffie made her way downstairs to the bar, where she found Marlene and Denzel having lunch while Tifa cleaned the counter. She could smell freshly cooked bacon and bread as she staggered through the room to steal a chip from Denzel’s plate. He gave her a glare, and she patted his bushy auburn hair and slumped into the chair next to him.

Marlene gave a smile. “Good afternoon, Yuffie.” She slid her plate over to Yuffie. They were having BLTs, crusts removed and sliced into halves. Yuffie took one half and started eating.

“Yuffie, you’re not stealing their lunches again, are you?” Tifa had her back to them when she asked, busy prepping for the evening rush. Her new 7th Heaven was every bit as popular as the old one. Yuffie always called Tifa’s ability to see things without actually seeing them motherly instinct. Tifa had no children of her own, but she didn’t seem to mind.

Yuffie stuffed the sandwich into her mouth and choked. “No.” She winked at Marlene, who giggled politely.

Tifa turned. “If you can wait, I’ll make something for you.”

“No time.” She stole a drink of Marlene’s water as she stood. “Got work.”

“Of course, you do.” Tifa smiled. “When did you get in this morning?”

“Yeah, did you stop anything big last night?” It was the first time Denzel spoke, but he always got excited about her jobs.

Yuffie turned to him, smiling. “I saved the world.”

“Yeah, but we already know about that.”

Yuffie laughed and blew him a raspberry. “Just a small-time materia deal in the Midgar ruins. Whipped some butt, interrogated some guys. We’re checking out the information we got from them.” She turned back to Tifa, who was busy checking her drawer for the night. She was counting bills out on the counter. “Hey, Tif, you ever heard of the Wasteland Bar?”

“Yeah. That’s where all the sorry riffraff I kick out of here go. Why?”

“It’s where I’m heading. Got anything?”

“Not much. I hear they’re open pretty much all hours of the day.” She stacked the bills, sorted them, and eased them back into the register. “Rumor is that the place is dangerous, Yuffie. Be careful.”

“Dangerous? Please, I’M the great ninja Yuffie.” Her PDA chimed, and Yuffie thumbed it. “Yeah?”

“I’m pulling up.”

“Right.” Yuffie ended the call and grabbed a handful of chips from Denzel’s plate as she passed. “Well, you all have a good day. And Tifa, make sure you feed those kids. They’re all skin and bones.”

Edge: Streets\

Daisy’s car was sleek and red. It had two doors and two seats, and she took it with her everywhere, driving without a care, the canopy down, glasses on, her dark hair whipping in the wind. Yuffie hated it. She hated the glossy finish. She hated the leather seats. She hated the polished rims, and she hung over the door, head down, trying her hardest not to vomit on the street as asphalt by.

Only a few years ago Edge, was grassland and dust. The air was fresh then but had stagnated since. The streets were narrow, each meticulously planned and measured for maximum efficiency. The Midgar wastes were not a place where life flourished, at least not human life, and they had to use every inch to its fullest potential.

Since its founding, Edge had developed the strong, musky scent of a city, and it choked Yuffie as they passed. She was born in Wutai and raised on the road. City’s always stunk to her, felt oppressive with all of their towers of stone and endless highways. Daisy, on the other hand, was at her best in the city. The country always gave her allergies.

The unchecked growth of Edge frightened some people, Yuffie included. Those who could remembered Shinra’s rapid development, Shinra’s military, and Shinra’s abuse of power keep a close eye on the growing W.R.O. and the cities it runs. Shirna Inc. still lingers in their minds like a specter, haunting them. Still, others flock to the security given by this new regime, once having lived with technology and unwilling to part with it now.

They came to a stop at a traffic light and Daisy peeked at her over her sunglasses. “You’re looking well.”

“Ugh.”

“You read the briefing?”

“Not a word.”

Daisy laughed and shook her head. They started moving again, and Yuffie’s stomach did a flip. At the end of the street, Daisy took a turn and started toward the outskirts of Edge. “Wasteland isn’t in the best area, as its name would imply. We’re there to gather info. Which means this is espionage. We’re their usual clientele, or at least not Hunters. We gather information, we do not engage. Get drinks, sit on them.” A glance at Yuffie, who was green by this point. “Understood?”

Yuffie hung over the edge of the car. “Blrk.”

“I’ll take that as a yes.” They passed truck. “They’re supposed to be a lot of criminals in there, including smugglers. This is where they live, so there’s other W.R.O. investigations going on there. So, stay sharp and be careful. No guns blazing.”

Yuffie groaned. “Don’t. Use. Guns. Grgh.”

“You, uh, going to be okay?”

“No. Promises.” Yuffie hardly got the words out before she vomited over the edge of Daisy’s sleek, red car, and lefts a long trail of bile across the door. This bile followed them to the bar like drops of wet paint.

Edge Outskirts: Wasteland Bar\

Wasteland Bar was mid-sized and square. The exterior was shoddily made, looking as if it were composed of various materials haphazardly thrown together. At one point in time, Yuffie figured, it had been a regular Edge building, but frequent bar rows or, perhaps, the attack by Bahamut Sin less than a decade back required improvisation on the owner’s part.

The inside, the girls found, was not much better. The light was dim and smoky, and the room went quiet as they stepped in. Women were likely a rarity there, or so they imagined, especially two young women such as themselves. A sea of beards, tattoos, and shifty glances greeted them. A thin man with a thin, gray mustache watched them from the bar. He didn’t smile.

Everything was quiet, save for the music in the background, and it wasn’t until Yuffie and Daisy took a booth that any life returned to the room. The patrons were hunched over their tables, gambling or plotting and, whatever they were doing, they kept a close watch on the them both. The thin man from the bar approached and took their drink orders. Daisy asked for something light. Yuffie got a tonic water. When their drinks arrived, they sat on them, watching the patrons while being watched in return.

Yuffie swirled a straw inside of her glass and made a small whirlpool. She placed her finger over the top and drew the straw out, sucking her drink from the bottom before setting the straw aside. Across the room, three thugs had moved to the doors. “We’re getting some looks,” Yuffie said.

“Of course, we are. Aren’t you supposed to be a ninja?”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that you’re not exactly inconspicuous.”

“What, you want me to scowl more?” Yuffie shrugged. “So, sue me for having a bit of presence.”

“You waved at someone as we entered.”

“That’s just being friendly. Anyway, you’re the one acting all shifty-eyed.” Yuffie hunched and darted her eyes back and forth. “Oh, gosh, I hope no one notices that I’m spying.”

“Yuffie!”

“Then again,” Yuffie sat up in her seat and took in the room, “Everyone else here is pretty shifty-eyed, too.”

Daisy yanked Yuffie back down into the booth. “Would you sit down? We’re supposed to blend in.”

“We don’t have enough tattoos for that. Or yellow teeth.” She looked at a large man at the bar. “Or tattoos OF yellow teeth.” She tilted her head. “Really, guy?”

Daisy sighed. She looked around and found all eyes fixed on them. The bar was slowly winding back up again. The music got louder. So did the chit-chat. No one stopped watching them, though, and it was becoming apparent that each one had a weapon ready.

“Think they recognize me,” Yuffie asked, sipping at her water again.

“From what?”

“From the war,” Yuffie said. “Any of them. All of them. I’ve been in it since the beginning.”

Daisy sighed. “I don’t know. Maybe. Probably. Just our luck.”

“Oh, relax, Daze.” Yuffie crossed her legs, swayed one foot in tune with the jukebox. “If you act like you don’t belong, then you won’t belong. Ninja Rule #1.”

“I thought Ninja Rule #1 was to end the fight before it started. Or there was the time you said it was to move like the night.”

“The Ninja’s have a lot of rules, the importance of which change to suit the context of the situation.”

Daisy sipped her drink, winced, and spat it back into the bottle. She decided to hold it by the neck and pretend that she was enjoying it. No one seemed to believe her. “They’re still watching us.”

“Of course, they are. It’s cause we’re so pretty.”

“That doesn’t make me feel better.”

“It should.” Yuffie turned her cup around in circles. Then, she set it on a napkin and watched it form a wet ring at the napkin’s center. “And, hey, at least it’s better than Junon. You remember that one place? With the guy with the toupee?”

“Oh. Don’t remind me.”

“My point is: we’ve done this before.”

The bar was back in full swing. All around them, people were laughing and carrying on. The only clue that anything was amiss was the way everyone glanced, was the people at the door, was the bartender hovering around one part of the bar and patrons coming to him.

“I don’t know. This feels somehow different. This time, I think they know.”

“Oh, they definitely know. It just doesn’t matter.”

Daisy sighed and stared at her drink. “This was all such a mistake.”

“Yeah, looks like it.”

“Well, what do we do then? We can’t gather information if they know that we’re looking for it.”

“Hmm? Oh, yeah, that is a funny anecdote.” Yuffie stood. “I’m going to the bar to get my drink refilled.”

“You’ve barely had any of it.”

“Yeah, good point.” Yuffie left the table, marched through the crowd and toward the bartender. People parted to let her pass and watched her as she went. It was at that point Yuffie was sure they recognized her, which suited her just fine. It got all the pretense out of the way.

At the bar, Yuffie took a stool and sat down. The bartender gave her a long stare and stood, arms crossed, cigarette burning in his mouth. He took it out and blew a haze of smoke in her face. She coughed and waved it away with her hand.

The tension had returned, and Yuffie could feel it in her neck. Everyone around her had shifted collectively, each of them reaching for a weapon. The bartender stared her in the eyes. “What do you want, girl?”

“Another drink and, if you’re open to it, a moment of your time.” Yuffie gave a smile. It was easy-going and somewhat lackadaisical considering the situation she was in. “I’m willing to pay for both.”

The bartender took a glass out and poured something clear and sour-scented into it. It poured out the sides, leaving pools of beaded liquid around it. He shoved it at her. “There, on the house. Drink it and leave.”

“Well, now, that’s no way to treat a customer.”

He crossed his arms again. “You’re no customer.”

“I’m not? Then, what am I?”

“W.R.O.” The air tightened further. All eyes were on her back. Yuffie circulated through her head the placement of each thug. She accounted for potential movement around her based on the scuffling of feet or particularly heavy breaths. The bartender, meanwhile, spat.

Yuffie pursed her lips, bobbed her head, shrugged. Then, she took the glass and held it to her lips. The smell was stronger up close. “You could call me that.” In her periphery, she could see guns drawn and knives ready. “You could also just think of it as me being curious. Actually, it’s better to just think I’m curious, because whatever the case is, I’m going to find out what I want to know, and curious saves you a lot of clean up. Maybe also a few cracked ribs.”

“We ain’t afraid of you,” the bartender said evenly. He leaned forward to stare her in the eyes. “We killed before. Even government dogs like you, Yuffie Kisaragi.”

“Yuffie? Kisaragi? Me?”

The bartender gave a scoff and smiled like he was in on a secret. “Recognized you from the moment you walked in. All them broadcasts years ago. Hero of the Jenova War. Well, you ain’t a hero here, honey. You’re just outnumbered.”

“Hm. Good point.” Yuffie looked over her shoulder. “Hear that, Daze. They did recognize me.” She leaned forward now, drink forgotten on the bar. “Assuming I am her—which I am—what makes you think that you can kill me then?”

“Cause you ain’t never been hero. Other’s did all the work. All you did was take the credit. Now.” He reached into his pocket and produced a pair of brass knuckles. Flexing his hand, he said, “Finish your drink and get the hell out of my bar before I kill you.”

“Hear that, D?”

“Of course, I did.” Daisy frowned and sighed. “Reed is going to love this.”

“We’ll call it self-defense.”

Yuffie grabbed the bartender by the head and slammed him, face-first, into the glass on the bar. She gave him another hard strike before kicking back at a man with a knife behind her and punching another nearby.

Gunfire echoed around her as Yuffie spiraled through groups of people. She kicked at them, struck at them with her fists, used her momentum to land blows with extra force. One particularly tall man she tossed over the bar by hooking her legs about his neck and swinging around.

Smoke filled the room, venting through bullet holes left in the wall as Yuffie darted around. She disabled a group of men, dismantling their guns as she knocked them unconscious, and soon all that were left were two men, one thin and the other older, carrying a steel pipe and a knife, respectively. Yuffie stared them down, hip cocked, as she dropped the bits of the last gun she took.

“You two really think you can win this?”

“No,” said steel pipe, shaking, “But...”

“But?”

“Them was our friends,” said knife, but he said it without feeling. It seemed to her that a life of crime was only a hobby for him, and then something he only just started doing because his son was into it and he wanted to connect with him, and like this was all a huge mistake.

“Ah. Honor before reason.”

“Something like that.” Knife took a deep breath to collect himself, and he lunged. Yuffie hardly had to move to leave him on the ground, his switchblade in her hand, her tossing it up and down while she kept him pinned with her foot. She looked at steel pipe. “You give?”

Steel pipe dropped his weapon and whined. “Don’t hurt me!”

“I won’t. In fact, I’ll let you help me make the world a better place, but...” She kicked him into a chair, which slid back into the wall, and tossed the blade into the wood just between his legs, pinning the fabric of his pants to the seat. As she approached, she kicked the blade deeper into the wood and leaned forward on her knee. “Talk fast or I’ll stomp them to dust.”

He swallowed, loudly, and began to sweat. “But I don’t want to be a squealer.”

“You’ll a squeal a whole lot more if you don’t talk.”

Another loud swallow. It almost sounded like he actually said ‘gulp.’

“What do you know about the materia smuggling going on here? Who are the dealers? Where are they getting it from? And if you don’t know, who would?”

“None of us,” he squeaked, and she shifted her foot. “W-What I mean is, we ain’t dealers! We doing running is all, and for someone else. Big group, led by a man with a mask.”

“A mask?” Yuffie glanced at Daisy, who was watching from behind her. “And who is this man?”

“I don’t know, but he ain’t just into smuggling. He’s been doing more, lots more. Has a whole group of people doing for him but don’t want us in his numbers. All he wants from us is to move his stuff without getting caught. That’s it.”

“And say I wanted to get some materia, how would I get a hold of it?”

“They don’t hire, but they’s always recruiting. People who go there, they go normal and come out talking all kinds of crazy. Say they’re fighting for a cause or some like it.”

“A cause?” Yuffie snorted. “Real original, these guys. And where do they do these recruitment drives?”

“All over.”

Yuffie applied pressure to his genitals. “Where is that?”

“Midgar Ruins! Sector 3! Tonight only! Rally!”

“A rally, huh?” Yuffie lifted her foot, positioned it between the knife handle and the chair. With a flick of her ankle, she flipped the blade up and caught it in the air. Then, she turned and tossed it, hitting a man behind Daisy with the butt of the handle and forcing him back to the ground. Without looking back at the boy, she said, “You can go. And take your daddy with you.”

He and the older man were nearly out the door when Yuffie bid them to stop. They stood, stiff, and swallowed. The young man, formerly steel-pipe, now trying to turn his life around, turned. “Y-Yes?”

“Just out of curiosity, if I wanted to go to this thing—I mean, it does sound like fun—what is it for? Who are these people?”

“Th-the Emerald Lotus.”

“Emerald Lotus? You’re sure about that?”

He nodded.

She tapped her chin, knitted her brow, and then she laughed. “Okay. Thanks. Have a good day now and stay out of trouble.”

“Y-you, too?”

Both men left as Yuffie walked the bar. None of the men were dead. She saw rubber bullets scattered across the floor and looks Daisy in the eyes. Daisy met the look with a frown. “I brought them because I knew, I just knew, you’d cause trouble.”

Yuffie shrugged. They started toward the exit.

“And what was that ‘stomp them to dust’ crap about?”

“Something I picked up from Tifa way-back-when.”

“You people,” Daisy said, holstering her guns and climbing into her car.


	3. Disc One, Mission 2

Midgar Barrens: W.R.O Hunter’s Lodge\  
Outside of Midgar and only a few miles shy of Edge was the Hunter’s Lodge, the unofficial name for the W.R.O. Materia Hunter’s base of operations. It was a small, squat Shinra military bunker abandoned after the Jenvoa War. Like all things Shinra, the W.R.O. picked it up and repurposed it.  
From a distance, it looked like a series of square buildings dug into the dusty red earth of the Midgar wastes. Since moving in, the Hunters had done little to repair or upgrade the exterior walls, leaving them wind blasted and worn. The interior had been left in similar disrepair, save for a vault built into its base where materia is held before extraction to the W.R.O. HQ building.  
Hunter philosophy was that every base is disposable. They are a nomadic force, moving where the trouble was. A central base of operations, while logistically sound, was financially unreasonable considering how small the Hunter force was and how frequently they moved.   
Despite their humble foundations, the Hunters were quite successful. Everywhere they went, materia smuggling rings were broken down and the materia they coveted and sold was confiscated and distributed to proper authorities. Dangerous materia was kept off the streets, while medical materia was made readily available wherever resources accommodated.  
Much of the lodge itself was located underground. Here, a series of tunnels connected rooms that once served as bunks for Shinra soldiers. They were made into offices for what few onsite Hunter work there was to be done. A handful of agents stayed, too, rather than pay rent in Edge. Yuffie originally intended to do the same until Tifa offered her a room.  
Yuffie didn’t visit often. She found the narrow halls of the Lodge oppressing and the dim lightning worse. Daisy was there almost every day, to check on new information, resupply, and write reports. She enjoyed the paperwork, which was why Yuffie worked with her so often.  
Daisy was a few years older than Yuffie, dark-haired, dark-eyed, and gentle. She joined the Shinra military at a young age, as many people did, with dreams of a better life. While she was an expert marksman, she never saw combat and was grateful for it. When she joined it was with romantic aspirations of protecting people from monsters or bringing them the light of industry.  
That didn’t last long. She quickly learned the true motives of Shinra, and the atrocities they committed, atrocities hidden from the public eye in the name of progress. That was when she filed for a desk job, and she was lucky to get one.  
After the war, Daisy turned her efforts toward rebuilding. She believed in the W.R.O. and its mission, and since she was a former Shinra soldier, she viewed it as her responsibility to set things right. Yuffie often reminded Daisy that she was a soldier in name only, but that didn’t do much to ease her guilty conscious.   
They arrived at the lodge in the early afternoon. The asphalt danced in the midday heat. Yuffie nearly fell from the passenger seat in her scramble to get out of the car. It took everything in her to keep from vomiting again. The distance between Edge and the Lodge, while short by most standards, was another reason Yuffie didn’t visit often.  
She was still nursing an upset stomach on the way in the front door, and Daisy was good enough to help her along. They took a series of long, winding corridors with bare, chipped walls to the cafeteria. They had already sent the information to Shelke, but Daisy decided she wanted to visit the lodge to eat and do her own research.  
They had just reached the door when a petite, bespectacled blond woman approached them, calling their names. “Um. Excuse me. Ms. Kisaragi. Ms. Kisaragi, could I bother you?”  
Yuffie, who had been holding her stomach up until then, leaned against the wall and looked up. “Canary?”  
“Uh.” Canary shifted, adjusted her glasses. She normally worked the front desk, but the girls had taken the back entrance. She was a mousy young woman who seemed perpetually scrambled. It always surprised Yuffie that Canary would ever follow the hunters anywhere around the world, but every time they moved, she moved with them. “Yes,” she said, “I’m sorry to bother you, but Mr. Reed would like to see you.”  
Yuffie sighed and rolled her eyes. “Oh, great. What now?”  
“I’m sorry. I didn’t think to ask.”  
“You’re fine, Canary.” Daisy helped Yuffie up and took her by the arm. “Come on, I’ll go with you. It’s probably about what happened at Wasteland anyway.”  
Yuffie groaned as Daisy dragged her forward. “Or we could ignore the old guy and focus on our work. Our real work. I’d prefer that over his lectures.”  
“He gives us our work, which means that sometimes, our work is to listen to his lectures.”  
“I just want to make it known that I disagree.”  
“Fine. Disagree. Just do it quietly.”  
Daisy led Yuffie through the halls by the arm. In the back of the facility, closest to the materia vault, they find the program director’s office. Mr. Reed was a tall, stout man with a trim beard and short, dark hair. He wore a fine, blue suit with a light blue tie and polished leather shoes. His name plate, too, was polished and sat gleaming on his desk when they entered.  
When he saw them, he sighed and showed them to their chairs. His office, relative to the offices in the building, was larger but still quite small by conventional terms. His desk was stacked high with paperwork and stuffed with file folder. He had an older computer purring, loudly, on his desk, which he stared at as they settled.  
“Ms. Gould, I didn’t ask for you.”  
“I know,” Daisy said as she eased into her seat. She had to force Yuffie into the other one. “But, I thought that since Yuffie and I are partners, it wouldn’t hurt for me to present.”  
He gave her a long, tired stare, and then nodded. “Fine, if you insist.” He stood from his desk and folded his arms behind his back, but only after smoothing out his jacket. “It won’t hurt for you to hear what needs to be said, I’m sure.”   
Yuffie sat curled in her seat, still holding her stomach. She watched him pace behind his desk quietly, sorting his thoughts, and when he turned on her, he glared. “What’s wrong with you?”  
“Motion sickness,” Daisy said.  
“Oh, yes.” He leaned forward on his chair. “Quite the agent, aren’t you?”  
Yuffie shrugged. “Not everyone can sit behind a desk all day.”  
His eyes narrowed, and he stood again and resumed his pacing. “Enough of that. Let’s review your work lately, Ms. Kisaragi. In particular, your most recent escapade, where you involved yourself in a bar brawl at a known criminal location.”  
“Okay, how in the world did you hear about that already?”  
He stopped on point and smiled grimly. “So, you don’t deny it?”  
“No,” Yuffie said, and Daisy pinched her wrist. Yuffie recoiled and frowned. “Ow! What? It’s not like he would believe me even if I lied. Anyway, I didn’t do anything wrong. We were there gathering information.”  
Reed raised single eyebrow. “With your fists?”  
“Sometimes the only way to get the best information is to beat it out of someone.”  
Daisy pinched Yuffie again and then folded her hands on her lap. “Director Reed, I assure you, in this situation, Yuffie did her absolute best to operate within mission parameters and reacted accordingly only due to a shift in said parameters.”  
“So you’ve said before,” Reed said. “You said it during the car chase through Edge.”  
“What,” Yuffie said, “Was I supposed to just let them escape?”  
“You said it during the warehouse fire in Wutai.”  
“Hey, turns out fire materia makes things burn.” Yuffie nudged Daisy, who glared at her. “I’m right here, aren’t I?”  
“And you said it in Junon, when she got drunk and captured by the enemy.”  
“Okay, now that,” Yuffie paused, “That was not my greatest moment, but we made it out okay, didn’t we?”  
“And there is your problem, Ms. Kisaragi. You always make it out. You rely on others to clean up the messes you’ve made, and you always end up making it out with the story, don’t you?”  
“I don’t think that’s a problem,” Yuffie said, leaning back in her chair, crossing her legs and arms in a sulk. “You just want to string me up.”  
“Sir,” Daisy interrupted, with another glare at Yuffie. “With all due respect, I was on each of these operations and was just as much involved as she was. So, why am I not being reprimanded like she is?”  
“Because, you’re solving the problems your partner causes.” Reed sighed. “Which is commendable. But, were it not for her reckless behavior in the first place, you wouldn’t need to clean up after her like a mother with a child.”  
“Sir, again, with all due respect, I don’t think that’s fair.”  
“Oh, it’s definitely not fair,” Yuffie said, her body sinking into itself in an effort to keep from throttling Reed. “What would be fair is if he focused on his paperwork and left the real work to professionals.”  
“Professionals.” Reed laughed. “You mean childhood materia thieves turned ‘heroes’ because they knew the right people. That sort of professional?”  
Yuffie stood and glared with balled fists. “And where were you during all of that? Hiding and cowering with everyone else?”  
“I was working with the Director to evacuate people from the city, what you were supposed to be doing rather than floating around with your friend, Mr. Valentine and taking credit for his successes. But that’s what you do, isn’t it? Throw yourself into the middle of things and claim victory after it’s all over.”  
“Sir,” Daisy said, but she was cut off by a glare from him.  
“Listen, Ms. Kisaragi. You are a member of the Hunters, which is a W.R.O. operation. We are not at war with monsters anymore, and we shouldn’t act like it. Your actions don’t save the world. They just cause trouble for the organization at large.”  
“I stop bad guys!”  
“You cause property damage and hurt people in the name of your own personal crusade,” Reed said. He held her gaze, even as she glared at him, and met it with a glare of his own. “According to officers on the scene you were threatening the young men at the bar. And what did you get for it?”  
Yuffie prepared to move on him but felt Daisy grab at her wrist. She took a deep breath. “Well, sorry, but we got information.”  
“And I hope it is worth the trouble that it has caused for the W.R.O. and the peacekeeper wardens.” Reed stood tall and adjusted his jacket again. Then, he pulled out his chair and took a seat. He returned to his computer and started filling in paperwork. “I just wanted to warn you, Ms. Kisaragi. I won’t be overlooking your antics anymore. What good will you had coming into this is all used up and the Director can’t protect you forever.”  
Yuffie scoffed. “Listen, I’ll worry about that when you actually get the guts to stand up and take a shot.” She turned to the door and yanked it open. “Come on, Daisy, we’ve got work to do.”  
Daisy stood and bowed to Reed. She muttered an apology before turning to chase after Yuffie, closing the door discreetly on her way out.

-Disc One-

Yuffie led them down the hall until it became clear that she had no idea where they were going. Daisy took lead then and led them through long, dark hallways to Lodge’s cafeteria. On the way, she glared back at Yuffie over her shoulder and found the shorter woman walking with her arms behind her head, pretending to nonchalant.  
Yuffie met her gaze. “What?”  
“You.” Daisy huffed.  
“Listen, D, I didn’t say anything to him that he didn’t have coming.”  
“He’s your boss, Yuffie.”  
“He’s your boss,” Yuffie said. “I’ve been at this way longer than he has. And besides, he’s a jerk.”  
“You push his buttons.”  
“He pushes mine.”  
Daisy stopped at the cafeteria door and had her hand on it when she turned to face Yuffie. Her other hand rested on her hip. “And you don’t even try to make it better.”  
“He’s a paper-pusher. I’m the one doing all the real work.”  
“You are the one who’s making all the real work harder for all of us,” Daisy said. “Whether you realize it or not, we all aren’t heroes from the good old days, Yuffie. Some of us haven’t saved the world three times over and are just trying to do the best we can now, and we can’t do that without resources. Resources that he is in charge of procuring.”  
“I…”  
They entered the cafeteria and come to a stop. Across the room, sitting alone with an open folder and a tray in front of him was Oliver Sykes. Daisy went quiet when she saw him and smiled faintly as he made eye contact with her. He waved them both over. “Well, hello, you two,” he said as they approached. “I thought I saw you around here.”  
“Oliver.” Daisy adjusted her jacket and tightened her ponytail. “Yeah, we’ve been, um.”  
“Arguing,” Yuffie said, slumping down at the table. “We’ve been arguing. And heya, Oliver.” She reached forward and took the fruit cup from his tray. She had the lid off and the fruit halfway into her mouth before he could speak.  
Oliver was a good soldier, quiet and industrious. He worked alone most of the time, and even when on a team operated largely in isolation. For those reasons, he got along well with Yuffie. Neither intruded on each other’s efforts.  
He was also quite easy on the eyes. Though short, he was stout and had eyes so green they looked mako-infused, save for lacking the signature glow. Even without that sort of enhancement, he could hold his own in a fight, too. Yuffie had seen him spar with other soldiers and was impressed. He won far more often than he lost.  
As they settled, Oliver shut his folder and set it on the seat beside him. He took off his glasses and tucked them into his shirt. “What were you two arguing about, if I may ask?”  
“The usual. Reed’s up my ass, and Daisy thinks I should let him make home there.” Yuffie poured the rest of his fruit cup into her mouth and then tossed the empty remains onto his tray. She caught Daisy staring and lifted her eyebrows in response. “What?”  
“Anyway,” Daisy said, sighing her frown away. “What were you working on? We’re not interrupting, are we?”  
“No.” Oliver smiled, and it showed his dimples. “No, just found some smuggling in the Kalm area. It’s nothing major, but I’m looking into it. How about you two, how did last night go?”  
“Smooth,” Yuffie said. Daisy gave her another look, and Yuffie met it again. “Seriously, what?”  
Daisy rolled her eyes.  
“Daisy stepped into steal the spotlight, as usual.”  
“So, she saved your rear,” Oliver said, and Daisy laughed.  
“Sure, you can call it that if you like.” Yuffie leaned forward and, without him noticing, took his roll from his tray. By the time he realized what she had done, she had eaten half of it, so he sighed in defeat the slid the rest of his food over to her. She responded with a cheeky grin.  
“Anyway, today we followed up on a lead,” Daisy said. “Which, in turn, led us to another lead, which is why we’re here.”  
“Doing research,” Oliver asked, leaning forward on his elbows and doing his best to ignore the way Yuffie ‘ate’ his food. He wasn’t sure she even chewed.  
“Grabbing lunch,” Yuffie said between bites.  
“Yuffie has Shelke doing the work,” Daisy said.  
“You know, you always say that with a tone. Like you don’t approve.”  
“That’s because I don’t approve.”  
They looked at each other, and Yuffie shrugged. “If you have a resource, why not use it.”  
“She actually has a point,” Oliver said. “What’s your lead for, anyway? If I may ask.”  
Yuffie gave a great big swallow. “Some guy over at Wasteland dropped a name,” Yuffie said. “Emerald Lotus. Sound familiar?”  
Oliver paused, scratched his chin, shook his head. “Nothing. Sorry.”  
“Damn.” Yuffie burped and shoved the tray away while Daisy grimaced. A chime sounded from her bracer, and she stood from the table with a half-wave and skipped across the room, finding privacy near the awning overlooking the barrens. She stared out the window, at Edge rising in the distance. “Well, hello.”  
“Yuffie Kisaragi.”  
“Who else would it be, Shelke?”  
“I have information for you.”  
“On the Emerald Lotus?”  
“What else would I call you for, Yuffie Kisaragi?”  
“Sarcasm,” Yuffie said, smiling. “You may yet become a real girl after all. So, tell me something good already.”  
“The Emerald Lotus is a type of medical plant found in the Wutai region. In small doses it is known to have regenerative effects, though ingestion of its leaves can, in large doses, cause minor auditory or visual hallucinations. This is caused by…”  
“Shelke. Shelke! I know this already. I’m from Wutai, remember?”  
“Yes,” Shelke said, “In ancient Wutai cultures it was adopted as a symbol of both regeneration and metaphysical ascendance. The oldest texts sometimes use it to symbolize rebirth. According to the myth of…”  
“Shelke, do you have anything about the Emerald Lotus that I want to hear about.”  
Shelke paused for a moment. Yuffie heard typing, clicking, and then, “An anti-WRO organization calling itself the Emerald Lotus has become very active in the Midgar region in the past two years. It is believed that they began as a group of small-time crime rings focusing on minor criminal activities such as extortion, bribery, and materia smuggling. Recently, however, while crime has reduced sharply, the severity and scope of crimes committed has increased proportionately. That is to say, they are becoming organized.”  
Yuffie glanced back at where Daisy and Oliver were flirting. “Anything else?”  
“Their influence is growing. It seems they’ve become quite influential in the Kalm area and even reach Junon.  
“Kalm, huh?” Yuffie stepped outside, into the fresh air. She breathed deep of it before leaning onto the patio railing. “And what exactly is their beef with the WRO?”  
“Official transcripts of captured and interrogated members claim their leader, calling himself only Lotus, is against any form of larger, extranational governments. He speaks loftily of an anarchist society of equals, living with absolute freedom, free from government oversight and uses lingering fears of Shinra to gain support.”  
“Sounds like scum.”  
“Perhaps, but his organization is growing quickly.”  
Yuffie nodded. “People are still scared of all that crap, especially with the Deep Ground stuff only a few years back. Anything else?”  
“The Emerald Lotus are holding a rally tonight, in the ruins of Midgar, sector four.”  
“Sector four.” Yuffie stood from the railing and returned inside. “Sounds like I’m taking Daisy somewhere nice tonight.”  
“Be careful, Yuffie Kisaragi, and contact me if you need anything.”  
“We’ll keep you posted. Thanks, Shelke.”  
“Yes,” Shelke said, and she cut the call.  
Yuffie returned to the table and stood quietly, hands on her hips, smiling until Daisy and Oliver acknowledged her.   
“Uh oh, Daisy, that looks like trouble,” Oliver said.  
“That is trouble,” Daisy said, and she crossed her arms. “What did Shelke say?”  
“She said that you need to dress up nice, because we’ve got two tickets to an Emerald Lotus rally in sector four, but they’ve got a dress code. Bummer, but she thinks we should crash.”  
“Does she think that, or do you,” Oliver asked, and Yuffie shrugged. Oliver shook his head. “Didn’t Reed just get onto you for sticking your nose into this?”  
“Oh, yeah,” Yuffie said thoughtfully. “Huh. Guess I forgot about it because I don’t care? Yeah, it’s probably because I don’t care.” She looked at Daisy. “You in?”  
“I’ll be there,” she said, and Oliver shook his head again. “What can I say? She’d be lost without me.”  
“Aren’t you the martyr?” Yuffie waved and turned to leave. “I’m going to train until then. You two lovebirds have fun and Daisy, sweetie, I’ll see you tonight. Don’t leave me hanging.”  
“I’ll be there,” Daisy said, and she waved over her shoulder. When she turned back to Oliver, she found him frowning. “What?”  
“She’s going to get you killed one of these days.”  
“No,” Daisy said, and she laughed. “She’ll get herself killed long before that.”

The Ruins of Midgar: Sector Four\  
Daisy drove them to the outskirts of Midgar, with Yuffie hanging, half-sick, over the side of the car. They stopped just outside of the sector-four fence, half-flattened during meteor fall and blackened by the heat of the Sister Ray’s backfire. Parts of the chain link had melted away altogether.  
Massive spires of debris gleamed in the sunlight and jutted from the earth, remnants of crises past. Every sector bared their scars proudly during the day but seemed haunted by night. Yuffie considered that perhaps nausea was influencing her perception and could find no argument to the contrary.  
They parked in the shadows, among the debris, and then waited for nightfall. Both found disguises. Yuffie work a dark jacket with her hood up and a pair of loose pants belted tightly around her midsection. Red-tinted shades completed the ensemble and effectively covered her face, or so Daisy claimed.  
Daisy wore a bright green vest over a tight black sweater and a pair of brown pants with deep pockets. She kept small two small sidearms attached to the vest and kept her vest zipped tight. Like Yuffie, she kept her face covered with sunglasses and also wore a big, brown hat with the bill angled low.  
The remaining streets of sector four were long, narrow, and littered with decay. Up close the fractured remains of the plate towered over them, gleaming faintly where the moonlight touched them and crusted in dust farther below. Bones lay scattered around them, tattered clothes hanging from some. The air smelled strongly of oil and ruin.  
Yuffie kept her eye down as they passed. Daisy grimaced at their surroundings before turning her attention ahead, at the lights appearing in the distance. “That must be where the rally is.”  
“Must be,” Yuffie said quietly.  
“Now, don’t look anyone in the eye. And don’t talk. You’re famous in all the wrong circles, so they might recognize you.”  
“Daisy, please. I know how to infiltrate a place. I’m the great ninja Yuffie, remember?”  
Daisy sighed. “So, you keep saying.”  
“What?”  
“Nothing, nothing at all. Just be careful.”  
“I feel like you’re talking down to me. Listen, just because I get motion sickness—a lot of people get motion sickness, you know.”  
“Yes, yes,” Daisy said. “It’s not the motion sickness.”  
Yuffie stopped and lowered her glasses to reveal a glare. “Then what is it?”  
Daisy stopped, too, but she shied away. “It’s that, sometimes, in your excitement, you can sometimes be a bit, well, theatrical.”  
“Name one time, ever, that I’ve been,” Yuffie made quotations marks with her fingers, “Theatrical!” Her fists came to rest on her hips as she really gave herself to the glare.  
Daisy sighed. “Nevermind,” she said, and she hurried forward.  
Yuffie followed shortly after, saying, “Hey! Don’t you walk away from me,” but Daisy did just that and ignored her.

-Disc One-

Up close the lights were blinding and gave off a great deal of heat. A stage had been set up, freshly built in an area cleared of wreckage. Enormous chunks of steel—remnants of the upper plate, Yuffie was sure—were stacked high around it for added privacy. Standing out front were two guards, both wearing dark green vests with a golden emblem across the chest. The emblem was of a flower.  
People gathered in the clearing, pooling before the platform. They talked quietly in the dusty heat of the night, their voices amplifying each other and creating a thunderous murmur. Yuffie approached confidently, with Daisy trailing, and they passed the guards without issue. Inside, they hugged the rear and talked in hushed whispers.  
“Think this is the place?”  
Daisy nodded. “It couldn’t be anything else.” She looked back at the entryway. More people were following them in. They seemed to appear from the darkness, coming from all sides. “This isn’t some small gathering. Look at the headcount.”  
“Yeah,” Yuffie said, grinning. “Been a while since I fought an entire army.”  
Daisy frowned.  
“I’m kidding.”  
“You better be. We’re here to gather information, nothing else.” She whispered this with as much authority as she could, which wasn’t much. There were people around her on all sides. Increasingly, it was growing harder and harder to keep their conversation private.  
“I know, I know, and I’ll get it done.” Yuffie pointed at herself. “Ninja.”  
Daisy’s frown deepened. “It’s a good thing I brought my guns.”  
“Oh, you worry too much. Now, go. We shouldn’t be seen together. Pretty girls like us, we’ll draw attention.”  
“Be. Careful.”  
Yuffie grunted and slipped into the crowd, disappearing among the bodies. She found a place upfront and surveyed the stage. It was stable but shoddy, thrown together from the mess that was there, she was sure. The lights buzzed, but the loudest sound was the whirring of the generators powering them.  
From the corner of her eye, Yuffie spied Daisy in the back. Attendees were still gathering but there was little room left. Anxiety moved through the crowd like static. Everyone was one edge, excited to hear what the Lotus had to offer, each interested in the cause.  
Yuffie was anxious to hear it, too. She gave furtive glances at those around her, nodded gently when she made eye contact, and she did her best to be discreet without being suspicious. The people here wanted the same thing as her—to see what the Emerald Lotus was and what it would do.  
The only difference was, Yuffie planned to stop them.  
As she listened, Yuffie learned more of the people gathered there. Each had complaints about the W.R.O. and voiced without restraint. There was no fear there, no fright that they might be heard. Every word was met with agreement or else parroted by others around her.  
The people here didn’t like the W.R.O. or what it represented. They viewed it, at best, as an inconvenience and, at worst, just another Shinra. Every aspect was criticized, including the Materia Hunters, and at times Yuffie found herself agreeing.   
Under W.R.O. rule the distribution of materia was tightly controlled. These efforts were intended to curb the usage of dangerous materia. After Shinra’s fall there was so much chaos. People who had been stripped of freedom, some kind and some cruel, found themselves without shepherds in the storm that was the new world, and in such times people grow wild.  
Some of the things Yuffie saw in the field justified the Hunters for her. She found rings of women ensnared by manipulate materia and used for unspeakable acts. She found fire or lightning materia weaponized by thugs and criminals who were harassing local towns. In one particularly gruesome case ,a Wutai veteran was murdering tourists to the area by using ice materia to freeze them alive and watched the life leave them slowly.  
But the people didn’t know about that, and they never would. W.R.O. politics was built around order, and anything that spoke any sort of failure on their part was kept quiet. Worse still, were some of the policies instituted that the people did know about. Most notorious was the cure materia shortage.  
After Shinra’s fall, materia became a commodity. While materia occured naturally in nature, much of the materia bought and sold was manufactured and distributed originally by Shinra itself or otherwise mined by them. Without Shinra there to produce the raw goods, the stock dwindled and could no longer meet demands.  
In short, there wasn’t enough cure materia for everyone. The W.R.O. solved this problem by tightening control of cure materia and then cutting distribution altogether. They set up clinics, which were free to start but operation costs were too steep. A cost was instituted to pay working operating these clinics, and soon after prices increased.  
Soon, the W.R.O. clinics became one of the biggest money-makers for the para-military organization, and they were also one of its major public faces. Among this crowd of refugees and rebels who feel betrayed by the new government, the clinics were also an example of everything wrong with the W.R.O., and listening to their complaints, Yuffie couldn’t find herself disagreeing.  
Still, despite her understanding, the complaints eventually bled together into a cynical white noise. She stayed close to the stage and stared straight ahead, waiting for the real Emerald Lotus to appear. The people around her were prospects and that meant, from her experience, they were about as close to the actual organization as sand was to glass.  
A few minutes passed and then there was movement in the crowd. The soldiers outside moved in and were joined by other Lotus soldiers. Over a dozen of them took places among the crowd. A few worked in the shadows to turn up the lights, and Yuffie could just see them as formless shapes moving in the darkness.  
A group of lotus soldiers stepped onto the stage, led by a tall, thin man with a dark mustache. They all wore the green lotus uniform, but he has his open, revealing a toned and slightly scarred chest underneath. He had a tattoo on his left pectoral of a behemoth.  
Mustache took center stage and scooped up the microphone. He tapped it and listened to the speakers whine. The people backstage adjusted the audio while the crowd held their ears. Yuffie winced.  
“Hello, everyone,” he said. His accent told that he was from Junon, but it was light, which meant he travelled. He moved easily and with a limp. Yuffie figured him for a former Shinra soldier. “It is truly wonderful to see so many of you here, so many who can live with open eyes and opens hearts. On this site, not long ago, a war was fought with human lives, for human lives. Shinra monetized us and enslaved us with their ‘mako energy,’ and they burned any who disagreed, and the W.R.O. is barely different. Same system, different suits.”  
The crowd murmured a polite cheer, and all around her Yuffie could feel the energy changing. It was hardened and stirred, galvanizing from a disorganized discontent into a focused force.   
“But tonight, will be the beginning of change, true change. Tonight will be a revelation! The Emerald Lotus is here to help you, not to see, but to act. We will change this world, and we will cut away your shackles and return to you the freedom taken by a money-hungry government that wishes only to control you. We will show you that your freedom was never truly taken at all, only hidden away behind a mirage of lies and false institutions.”  
A storm of applause greeted this, and Yuffie could feel the bodies around her moving. The lights and heat surrounded and suffocated her as the bodies moved. They swayed and clapped, and they listened raptly to his every word.   
Silence settled, and Yuffie could hear even Mustache’s footfalls as he paced across the stage. “I am but a man, as all of you are but men, but together we are more. The Emerald Lotus is not an organization but a body of people working toward one future, one unified goal—a free world for all. We are a vision of what could be, of what should be, of the end of a corrupt empire that has grown from Shinra’s ashes,” he said. “The W.R.O. is a disease and we? We are the cure.”  
The crowd cheered again and grew wilder by the minute. Mustache smiled at the chaos he sewed and lifted his hand. Silence fell, and he lifted the microphone once again to his lips.  
“But I go on. I am here not to incite you to rebellion—no, that is not my job. For I am like you, all of you, who have come from broken homes, from broken lives taken from us by the broken people chosen by those sheep too weak to break from the herd, but I was saved, as you all will be, by our true leader, but the one man who hears our voice, who sees our suffering, and who knows how to fix it.”  
Mustache stepped back and extended his arm, and a man appeared from shadows. To that point, Yuffie didn’t see him, and she was stunned by his sudden appearance. He moved liquidly from the shadows, draped in a flowing green robes richly embroidered. He had his hood up, trimmed with golden fabric. A mask covered his face, expressionless white, with thin, dark slants for him to see from.  
Mustache smiled at the awed silence of the crowd and handed off the microphone to this man, who seized it and stared out at the people. He rose it to his mask, and he spoke. His voice was rich and smooth but had an energy to it that bespoke youth.  
“Long ago, before Shinra and even before materia, the ancient people of Wutai used a single flower to cure all of their ails. It was small and thin, with eighty tiny petals. It grew in the shallows of ponds, floating across the surface like a shooting star and had a blossom in the center of the deepest green.  
“Once upon a time, it was used by men and women of the tribes there to heal wounds and fight disease and, in certain rituals, to give visions of the future. As time passed, and technology advanced, this practice was left forgotten, living only in myth or parable, but in truth it was once a primary regent in the ancient potions, used to heal small lacerations or ease suffering.  
“That was the Emerald Lotus, and just as it healed, so shall we. We will cure this world of the lies and corruption that spoil it, and we will lead it toward a new future, one of mended wounds that were once left to fester by corporate greed and hunger for power.   
“Brick-by-brick, the W.R.O. has recreated everything they destroyed in Shinra, and we have let them do it. Shinra burned down my home, enslaved my people, tortured my body in countless ways before leaving me to die. Now, Shinra is dead, and a new taskmaster has risen in its place. It claims to be different, but I do not see my home returned. I do not see my family avenged. All I see are the same crimes committed, but now people accept them with open hands.  
“I am no leader, I am the Lotus. I am a simple vision, a spirit of righteous change conjured by all of you.” He pointed to the crowd as he spoke, and everyone held their breath. “You suffer under Shinra’s ghost no more. The W.R.O. uses honeyed lies to hide their poison, but you will not swallow. The seeds of rebellion are planted and ready to flower, and it is our hands which will pluck the ripened fruit and eat of it freely.  
“It is for you that I exist. I am a simple Lotus, waiting in the water to be consumed by a sick and dying world, by a sick and dying people. So, trust me, trust in the vision I give you and, fight alongside me. For only if we fight will we be truly, truly free.”  
There were no applause, not even a cough. When Yuffie turned to see the crowd, she found them in awed silence. They didn’t simply watch him. They worshipped him. They saw in him everything that the W.R.O. promised but failed to be. They saw in him every complaint, every hunger, every pain, and every hurt, and they saw in him the way to take it all away.  
“And now the sad truth. We are fighting a war, and we are fighting it to the death. The W.R.O. has grown fat and drunk on its power, and it does not want to let go. There are those so indoctrinated that they willingly let these slave-masters leash them like dogs and parade them about, eating scraps discarded from the table because they lack the resolve to rise and take them for themselves.  
“Violence will happen. It is unwanted but inevitable. Words have not worked and will not work, not against those so sick with greed that they cannot hear. The pen is no mightier either, for our enemies can see only the gil they stand to make, not the text which we write. No, weapons will be our font, and our message will be left in flame and in blood. This flesh is necrotic, and we must cauterize it before we can heal.  
“So, we fight. We take our futures from those who would shepherd us against our will. We wage this final war, and we free ourselves from the cages built around us long ago. We become the heroes they claim to be, the heroes we were always meant to be, and we tear down this wall of lies so that we can truly, finally, see reality.”  
He went quiet again, and this time they cheered. It was a sea of flailing limbs and Yuffie spied Daisy in the back, looking pale and frightened. They made eye contact, and Yuffie was sure she looked the same.   
The two of them traded nods and Yuffie sunk into the bodies. She moved smoothly through the masses and stopped only when the crowd went quiet. Lotus was speaking again before she could turn.  
“I am glad that I have your support. Now, for the first step. Before we fight, we should send them a message. A declaration of war, and I know just the message to send. Yuffie Kisaragi, if you could help us with that task.”  
She froze and stared into his mask, and she could almost feel him smiling. The bodies around her parted, giving her a long, narrow view of the stage. He watched her, microphone to his mask, stone-still.  
“I knew you were here,” he said. “How could I not recognize you, hero of the Jenova War, supposed savior from the meteor fall, leashed and collared and trained to attack on command. Have you come here today to sniff me out? To devour me before we devour your beloved master? Are you afraid I might share the valuable materia that you have worked so hard to keep out of the hands of those who truly need it?”  
Eyes were trained on her now. The soldiers in the corners had left their post and were moving through the crowd. The bodies around here went still, stiff, all watching with her uncertainty, in awed fright. They shifted only as they were shoved about by the enemies moving through them.  
Yuffie tugged her hood back and tossed her glasses to the ground. “You know, this is embarrassing. I get recognized everywhere I go. Price of being famous, huh?”  
“Must be,” Lotus said. “Why are you here, hunter?”  
“Just taking a look at your little club here. I was thinking of joining, but I don’t like the outfits.”  
“Ah. But you stayed long enough to memorize the faces of those here so that you can take our families from us as we sleep.”  
“Please,” Yuffie said. “You’re painting some kind of picture here, but you’re not a very good artist.”  
“Art has always been subjective,” Lotus said. “But, enough. We know your rhetoric and I know your rules, and I will not be subject to them.”  
“No, you want to play by your own rules, get everything in the world without a care for the people it might hurt.”  
“I want only to do what is right, based on my own conscious and not on the pockets of those who would make me their slave. I will not bow to some new dictator, nor kiss the boot of one who kicks me down.”  
“I’ll be kicking you in a second.” Yuffie noted how the crowd was thinning around her, how the soldiers were making wide circles about her, ready to strike but afraid to make the first move. “Listen, all of you. The W.R.O. just wants to help. It just wants to create order!”  
“And why does the W.R.O. have to create order? Why can’t we do that on our own? Why do they need to control how we live?”  
“Oh my-You’re ridiculous, you know that? You’ll just take anything I do and say and turn it against me!”  
“Easy to do when you’re so wrong,” Lotus said. “But, I understand. You’re a good dog. Reeve has you well-trained.”  
Yuffie growled. “Keep talking and you’ll see just how well-trained I am!”  
Lotus laughed. “And what will you do? Assault me, as you did the patrons of the Wasteland? Look well, everyone, this is the W.R.O.’s true face. Force in the face of opposition. If you can’t buy them, then you intimidate them. The problem here is, Yuffie, I am not afraid of you. And I will not bow to anyone.”  
“Oh, I don’t know. I think I’ll have you on your knees in a bit.”  
Yuffie charged. The soldiers around her broke holding pattern, but they didn’t know how to move. They were hesitant and slow, and they could do little more than watch from the sidelines as she made her approach.  
At the stage she jumped and flipped through the air. At apex, she pulled a materia from her pocket and felt it draw from her body. A spark of electricity jumped from the sphere and made an arc toward Lotus. It died before reaching him.  
He stood still and watched her descent. She drew a knife from her other pocket and brought it down toward him but hit empty air. He side-stepped the attack and kicked her hard in the chest, knocking her from the stage and onto her back on the ground. She used the momentum from her fall to roll backward and onto her feet, and she staggered to a stop.  
Lotus watched her from the stage. In one hand he held the microphone. In the other, he held a small handle with a little red button on the end. The button glowed dimly beneath the floodlights. “Surprised that your materia failed you? Don’t be. We’ve found a solution to our materia problems, one which will level the playing field. We call it a materia jammer. When activated, all materia within a fifty-foot radius is rendered useless.”  
Yuffie scowled. “Doesn’t matter.” She yanked her jacket off and dropped it at her side. “I don’t need materia to knock your ass up and down that stage.”  
“Yes. You’re quite the fighter. Overcame the five gods of the pagoda on your own.” Lotus tossed the jammer to a tall, dark woman standing nearby and then dropped the microphone. He leapt from the stage and landed ten feet away from her, staring into her eyes. “We’ll see how long you last.”  
Yuffie threw her dagger, and he kicked it away. He undid his cloak, revealing a loose, black gi underneath, and folded the cloak carefully before leaving it on the stage. When he turned, he still had his hood up, and he tucked it into his mask before meeting her eyes. “Yuffie Kisaragai, daughter of the great Gotoh Kisaragi, leader of the Wutai, highest of the five gods. I had thought you were better than this.”  
“I’m just rusty.”  
“Let’s give you incentive then.” He pointed to the corner and Yuffie saw Daisy standing straight, her weapons discarded. A blonde stood behind her, eyes glowing green and holding a sword to Daisy’s throat.  
Yuffie sighed. “Really, Daze?”  
“Yuffie, I’m sorry!”  
“Yeah, yeah, just sit tight.” Yuffie widened her stance and turned back to Lotus. “I’ll mop this guy up quick.”  
Lotus laughed. “You think highly of yourself, don’t you?”  
“You’ve done your homework. You should know. I’m an old veteran.”  
“Yes, you were.”  
“Oh, man, am I going to enjoy punching that mask into your skull!”  
“Then do it.”  
She charged again and swung hard, but by then he wasn’t there. He moved a small, discreet circle around her. She met him coming around, bringing her left fist back at him, and he ducked under it. This continued, strike and evasion, strike and evasion, looking almost like a dance.  
Yuffie stepped in, tangled her right leg in his, and tried to punch for the head, but he caught her by the fist and twisted her around. He moved to pin her against the stage, but she twirled in the air and used her momentum to twist his arm back. Flowing with her movements, he spun, too, and then kicked her in the side, knocking the air from her.  
She stumbled into the stage and glared at him. The blow was glancing, and adrenaline kept her going. She was hurt, but it was mostly bruised pride. He was smiling behind his mask, she was sure.  
He bounced on his feet and laughed. “Weren’t the people of Wutai supposed to be good at hand-to-hand combat?”  
“Shut. Up!” Yuffie kicked high and missed wide. She spun on heel and kicked overhead, and Lotus caught her by the ankle and threw her to the ground. She landed in the dust and rolled to a stop before pushing off and continuing her assault.  
Her next swing landed her in his grasp. She drew another knife and swiped at his face. It left a shallow scrap across his mask. He moved too quickly, too fluidly for her to pin down, and at this point it was becoming clear that he was toying with her. He tossed a handful of dust into her face and twisted the dagger out of her hand.  
She staggered back, coughing and rubbing dust from her eyes, while he walked a small circle around her. He held the dagger between his hands, regarding it casually as he spoke. “Truly, I am disappointed. After all, you were a hero. A legend. Or so you remind people but, it seems, like most legends, you’re mostly fiction.”  
Yuffie’s eyes burned, but she was angry, so she swung wildly. Each time she could feel his body just outside of her reach. He moved around her, but his presence remained static, and it kept her swinging, kept her mad. Finally, he stopped retreating and met one of her swings with a kick to the gut. This one hurt for real.  
“Or, maybe it is that your time in captivity had dulled your fangs. Have your masters pampered you with shiny things?”  
“Big talk for someone who is doing nothing but dancing around my attacks,” she coughed. “What, afraid to break a nail?”  
“Yuffie,” Daisy shouted. “Don’t!” The woman behind her had adjusted the blade.  
Yuffie saw Lotus look back, and then look forward again. “Fine,” he said. “This game has gone on long enough. Watch, everyone, as I end a legend.”  
He made toward her, and Yuffie dug in her feet. Years ago, before the Hunters were put together, Tifa helped Yuffie to sharpen her hand-to-hand combat. They studied together, and Tifa taught her a secret that no one else knew. It was a part of the school of martial arts she learned as a teen.  
The attack was called the school’s Death Blow. It was a forced critical strike. To do it right, Yuffie had to wait and put all of herself into one blow. The attack was to be swift and discreet and, if she was lucky, it would end the fight immediately. The key was stance and force.  
If it hit, the damage would be catastrophic, and Lotus would be eating his mask. If it missed, then Yuffie would be wide open and without time to react. Either way, the battle would be over.  
She could hardly see him, but she could feel his approach, hear his footsteps. When he was closed, she aimed for his chest. She took a small step with her right foot, and she braced herself. With both hands, she struck with lightning force, and she hit nothing.  
He danced around her again, grabbing her by the arms and redirecting her energy. She couldn’t react in time to stop it and found herself being thrown, face-first, into the stage. Her nose cracked and flesh parted. Blood gushed and filled her mouth. It painted her chin red.  
She spiraled around toward him and didn’t respond until he landed a blow into her gut. She backed again, into the stage, and then pushed off without thinking. She couldn’t breathe and her legs were giving out. She fell into him and felt pain in her left shoulder. He had sunk the dagger into her.  
Lotus held her up, one hand under her right arm and the other holding the dagger. He released her and let her fall into the dirt, where her blood was pooled. He stood over her, covered in blood that, briefly, she thought might be his and then reality caught up to her. She coughed and stared blindly into the inky black sky.  
He leaned over her. “I won’t kill you, because I have a message,” he said, and he stepped onto her face and pushed it into the blood and the dirt. “So, listen, and listen well. Tell them that I am coming, and that there’s nothing they can do to stop my revolution.” He pulled his foot back and kicked her.  
Her head jerked to the side and the world spun. A trail of blood was spread around her. Everything was glaring and white, and then her vision started to fade. The last thing she saw before she blacked out was Daisy with a blade sticking from her gut.


	4. Disc One, Mission 4

Midgar Wastes: W.R.O. Hunter’s Lodge—Infirmary\  
Yuffie remembered the night in flashes. She remembered falling in the dirt. She remembered swallowing blood. She remembered Daisy bent backward, neck exposed, blade jutting from her opened chest. She remembered the blinding light, brilliant, burning her eyes, whiting her vision. Then, she remembered nothing.  
She woke up later, with bruised limbs and I.V.s fixed to her flesh. It hurt to open her eyes. The white walls and white sheets blinded her. The mechanical beeps split her ears. She winced and tried to move, but her body wouldn’t comply. She was too tired and too stiff. Bound by lethargy and by hurt, she was stuck in bed for a time.  
She blinked existence into definition. The curtain was pulled. A small monitor to her right showed her heartbeat. It hurt to breathe.  
Lotus’ voice echoed in her head. It was a faint whisper, a faint warning, and a proclamation all at once. She tried to remember him, to hold onto his voice, to his body, and to everything that happened. It echoed through her, a memory with more value to it than she could truly understand. Somewhere, in the back of her head, she remembered it, remembered him. They were connected, she simply didn’t know how.  
She could smell flowers and, turning her head with difficulty, found a vase sitting beside her. It housed a splash of color that carried her away to another time. Once, when she was young, she stood on the edge of a cliff outside of Wutai and stared into the village. The flowers grew up to her waist.  
On that day, she wasn’t alone. Someone was there with her, a boy or a man, she couldn’t properly recall. She did remember his voice. He spoke with her calmly, clinically, careful with his words, careful with her. More than that, he cared deeply, and when she turned to face him, he wore a robe and a mask, and she could see dark eyes through slit holes in his mask.  
He spoke to her of Wutai requiem.  
The hurt brought her back. Lotus’ blows had been quick and hard, and she could still feel them in her bones. He hadn’t killed her, but he could have. He wanted to use her to send a message, and he wrote that message in her wounds. She closed her eyes to ride out the humiliation and the hurt.  
A shadow appeared against the curtain, a human shadow, and beside her the heart monitor made its mechanical bleat. Yuffie sat up, slowly and with effort, ignoring the pain that rippled through her. Her body hurt so much that it transmuted her memories; she could hardly remember a time when she didn’t hurt.  
She breathed, though, and she endured.  
With slow, careful movements, she removed the catheter from her arm and slid across the bed. Holding the railing, she lifted herself and braced. The world spun for a moment. She breathed through the hurt, gave her body the time it required to steady. Then, she removed everything attached to her and turned off the monitor before it could alert anyone.  
Holding the wall, she made a series of small, unsteady steps toward the curtain. Stopping, she balanced against the wall and tugged the curtain to the side, revealing Daisy. Her dark hair was a mess of curls. Her body was one giant bandage.  
Yuffie took another deep breath. This time, she looked away. She found her clothes in a nearby bin, washed and folded. She dressed, slowly, pausing at regular intervals to cringe, and she left her gown draped across the bed. On the way out, she made sure not to look at Daisy again. One time was enough.  
A nurse met her in the hall, a dark-haired woman with bright blue eyes and a gentle, trained smile. Yuffie passed calmly. She didn’t make eye contact, but she did offer a strained smile. Behind her, the woman turned and followed her. Yuffie staggered away, faster, until her legs gave out. The nurse was there to catch her when she fell.  
“Ms. Kisaragi, wait! What’re you doing out of bed?”  
“I’m fine.” Yuffie pushed the woman away and braced against the wall. She shouldn’t be so weak, she thought, even with her injuries, and she wondered if it were the drugs. She shook her head, trying hard to ignore the way the lights sparkled and swayed. Pain jumped up her spine, and her vision went dark briefly.  
“Ms. Kisaragi, you need your rest.”  
“No.” Yuffie pushed along the wall, stumbling forward, staring fixedly at the end at the exist. Reed entered from there, smiling at her, speaking taunts. He moved like the air, gliding toward her.  
“Can’t listen to anyone, can you?”  
“Shut up!” She swung at the air, staggered, and fell back against the wall, panting.  
“Ms. Kisaragi...”  
“It’s just like you,” Reed whispered in her ear, a taunt in his voice, “Swinging at ghosts.”  
“SHUT! UP!” She lunged forward, kicked at the wall, and fell.  
She lied there, breathless, weeping to herself. Sickness stirred in her gut. She pushed herself to standing, or tried, but she was pale and weak. The nurse seized her by the arm and cradled her waist. She was careful to avoid Yuffie’s injuries.  
“This is ridiculous,” the nurse said, hauling Yuffie up and helping her back toward the room. Somewhere, in the back of her head, she was sure Reed was laughing at her. For a time, she was also sure he was real.   
That certainty faded as the nurse dragged her away, and her vision faded with it. She felt the nurse stumbled under her weight, braced against the wall to support both of them.  
Yuffie dreamt, then, of a field of flowers, of the dry Wutai mountain air, and of the blue sky above the peaks. She stood among the clouds, watching herself in the flowers, a small girl with a man behind her. She watched herself, decades later, fighting ineffectually, surrounded by people.  
“You know me,” a voice said to her, and she turned to find no one there. A ceramic mask hung, suspended in the air, a thin scar left across its surface. “This is the message. You know.”  
“Who are you?”  
A laugh, muffled by the mask. “Do you want to know so badly?”  
“You said I already know.”  
“You do.” The mask smiled, revealing behind the face of the mountain, stone shifting, expelling dust. Yuffie grabbed the mask, removed it, and found nothing behind it. After that, the dream faded, and she slept, dreamlessly, thoughtlessly, through the night.

-Disc One-

Yuffie slept soundly, aided by drugs and materia. When she woke, she found Reed waiting. He was watching her in cold, clinical manner, made all the worse by the sterile white walls that surrounded them. He wore a broad-shouldered business suit, black in color, with a green tie and a folded green cloth in his breast pocket. His hair is comb back.  
When he saw her eyes open, he spoke immediately. “Ms. Kisaragi.”  
Yuffie winced and pulled herself up. “Reed.” The pain was gone now, the ache missing, but she felt light-headed and sick to her stomach. “What do you want?”  
“Don’t get smart.” He said it calmly, but there was rage in his voice. “You’re in deep enough as it is.” He glanced toward the curtain, toward where Daisy’s shadow resided. “I hope you are proud of the work you’ve done.”  
“I was doing my job.”  
“You were disobeying my orders, and it almost got you and your partner killed.” He leaned over on the bed, holding the guard rail tight. She was sure he was just seconds from throttling her. “Your job is find materia, to control the flow of and stop the illegal distribution of it. It is not, nor will it ever be, espionage or infiltration. All that will do is get you killed.”  
“The Emerald Lotus ARE smuggling materia! And they’re getting out of hand. They’ve been behind all of the illegal activities around Edge recently, and rumor has it that they’re going even bigger than that! You say I’m supposed to stop the illegal distribution of materia in this area? That is what I am doing!”  
“This is not in your hands,” Reed said calmly. He stood straight and adjusted his tie. “If you can’t do this right, Ms. Kisaragi, then maybe we should relocate you. The W.R.O. has a peacekeeping force and an organized military. We are neither of those and they don’t need us to be. Anything beyond materia is beyond us, and you seem unwilling to remember that.”  
“Oh, please! If they were so good at their jobs, then the Emerald Lotus wouldn’t be a problem in the first place!”  
“You,” Reed growled, his jaw tight and his eyes narrowed, “You and your hard head You think that you can solve everything and prance around pretending to be a hero. But you’re no hero, and you never were. You are just a tag-along kid who gets in the way and gets hurt and leaves the mess for others to clean up. Daisy spent her time cleaning up after you like that, and this time it almost got her killed.”  
Yuffie jerked forward, fists balled, and she stopped short. Behind him, behind the curtain, Daisy slept, and fighting him here could only cause more trouble. So, she glared, but she lacked the animosity from before. Somewhere, in the depths of her, she could feel the bitter truth rising in her gut. Images of Daisy, impaled upon a long, flat blade came to her, as did memories of being captured and pinned to the mountain ranges of Wutai. She hated Reed, but this time, she knew he was right.  
He leaned forward, bracing the wall as he loomed over her. “And, as things stand now, the Emerald Lotus have gone into hiding without a trace. Leaving only you two behind, presumably as warnings, and nothing else for us to track them by. Congratulations.”  
“We’re messages,” Yuffie said, sinking into herself and feeling very small. She hugged her knees. “Not warnings.”  
“A message? And what were they trying to say?”  
She met his eyes and looked away. “Their leader, he wanted me to tell you, to tell Reeve, that they’re coming. Whatever that means.”  
Reed sighed and rubbed his hair, messing it briefly before smoothing it back. He leaned against the wall. “Of course, they air.” Then, standing straight, “However foolish it was of you to go there, it is still very bold of them to go so far as to hurt you. I fear our time in Edge may be coming to a premature end.”  
Yuffie sat up. “What? Why? What about the materia smuggling here?”  
“As you said yourself, all of the Materia here is tied to them, and they’re much more than a simple smuggling ring. The hard truth is, they’re too much for us to handle. This is best left to the military.”  
“But...!”  
“And as for you, I’ve finished looking over your file.” He pulled a folder from the edge of the bed and tossed it onto her legs. Yuffie picked it up and glanced over it.  
“I’m fine now.”  
“No, you’re not.” A smile cut its way onto his face. It was humorless and cruel. “Starting today, you’re on medical leave due to the injuries sustained in the line of service.”  
“Reed!”  
“Don’t say I can’t, because I can and I have, and if you continue this insubordination, I will have you removed from the Hunters entirely.” Reed turned then and made for the door. He stopped with the door open, his hand resting on the doorknob. “Take the time to gather yourself, Ms. Kisaragi, and really think about what it is you should be fighting for.” He looked her in the eyes. “Because, whatever it is you’re fighting for now, it’s not enough.”  
It took everything in her to hold the folder until he left. Then, she threw it at the door as hard as she could and rolled over, hugging herself tight and fighting hard not to scream or to cry.

-Disc One-

The conversation with Reed left Yuffie feeling restless. So, she rose from the bed and pushed her way past the attending nurse and out into the hall. She walked, aimlessly, to stretch her limbs and clear her thoughts. After a few minutes, she found herself standing in front of the training room.  
Like the rest of the Hunter’s Lodge, the training room was located underground. It was a large, circular room with reinforced cement walls and padded floors. The ceilings had a series of large, rounded, reflective disks that could be used for a holographic interface. By taking a right at the entry way, she could find her way into the weight room. To the left was an area for live firearms.  
Yuffie started on a treadmill to work the kinks from the body. It had been a few days since she was really up and around, and while the ache was gone from her bones, she still felt tired and stiff. When that was solved, she went to run basic drills in the training room. Holographic enemies attacked in waves. By this point, she knew the patterns and matched them precisely, dodging attacks, striking at expected openings. The enemies dissolved into particles each time her limbs passed through them.  
It was a light workout but rewarding, stretching her limbs and clearing the cobwebs from her mind. More than that, it gave her time to really think about everything that had happened to her. The harsh truth was that Reed wasn’t her real problem. He was only an exacerbation. The real problem was the rally, the Emerald Lotus, and Lotus himself.  
The damage done to her that night was more than physical. Her pride was wounded, and something was haunting her. Something intangible lingered at the back of her mind, like a whisper she couldn’t quite hear. She knew him, recognized him in his voice and his movements. He was Wutai to her, but she didn’t know why.  
She stopped to adjust the program, upgrading the battle parameters to a higher setting. After, she sunk down into a battle stance and waited. Since childhood, Yuffie has practiced stealth. She was a more a spy than a soldier, but during her adventures with the team, she learned what she could from them. When assigned to the Hunters, she took time away to train under Tifa, and she had thought that would be enough.  
Lotus proved her wrong. He taught her that there was still so much for her to learn.  
Yuffie tried to emulate Tifa’s style as best she could, but there were differences between them. Tifa was focused and quick. Her movements were efficient and strong, and no matter how hard Yuffie punched, she lacked the raw striking power Tifa had. So, she adapted it, focusing on precision and speed. Tifa could turn a glancing blow into a killing strike. Yuffie, on the other hand, couldn’t allow for glancing blows.  
She lost herself to exercise. She worked her body hard, perhaps past its limits, and she continued pushing herself harder and farther. Sweat dripped from her body, and by the end she was bent over and panting.  
Oliver watched from the entryway. He was leaned against one wall with his arms crossed. He wore a dark tank top and a pair of grey sweats. “Shouldn’t you be resting?” He asked it as he approached her, carrying a green gym bag over his shoulder.   
Yuffie righted herself and gathered her breath. “That’s what they think, but I know better.” She stretched with her arms overhead. “I can’t stand lying around in a bed all day.”  
“I guess I understand that.” Oliver opened his bag and pulled a bottle of water from it. He tossed it to her. It was still cold to the touch, and she held the bottle to her skin before drinking deeply of it. “Be careful, though. You wouldn’t want all of their hard work to go to waste.”  
“Their hard work,” she muttered, and she drank again. She sprayed some across her face for good measure. “I’ll be fine. I’ve taken worse beatings, believe it or not.”  
“That doesn’t mean that this one wasn’t bad.”  
“It wasn’t,” she said.   
“Maybe not for you,” he said quietly. They made eye contact. He looked away first and scratched his chin. “Listen, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to...”  
“No,” she said, looking fixedly at the ground. “You’re right. Daisy got hurt because we—because I—was careless.”  
“Sounds to me like you were right for the first time,” Oliver said. “You both were.” He dropped his bag to the ground, against the wall. “But what were you thinking? Why didn’t you call for back-up?”  
“We didn’t expect things to go so bad,” she said. “Reed wouldn’t have helped, anyway.”  
“Then you should have called me.”  
“Please, you wouldn’t have been any more help.”  
“That’s not fair,” he said. “I would have told you it was a bad idea from the beginning, yes, because it WAS a bad idea, but I would have been there. I would have helped.”  
“You wouldn’t have...” Yuffie stopped and went quiet. She felt tired, finally, and she didn’t have it in her to fight. She traced her left thumb along the water bottle’s cap, felt the cold, damp shape of it in her palms. “You’re right,” she said. “Sorry about Daisy.”  
Oliver, quiet now, rubbed the back of his neck. He looked away. “Yeah. Me, too.”  
Silence settled. Oliver went to the control panel. “You done?” He saw Yuffie nod and started fiddling with the information, adjusting the parameters for his own workout. Yuffie dropped the water bottle against the wall and met him at the console.  
“You know, you shouldn’t waste your time with this stuff,” she said, reaching past him and clearing all of the work he had done with a single press of a button. “It’s always better to have a living opponent, don’t you think?”  
Oliver looked at her. He sighed. “Yuffie, that isn’t a good idea.”  
She made a face, with her eyes rolled back and her tongue protruding. “Yuffie, that isn’t a good idea.” She snorted. “Sorry, I didn’t know that you were a coward.”  
He frowned. “You really want this?”  
She paced away from him, widened her stance, and sunk low. Lifting her hands with balled fists, she smiled. “I need a real work out, and I think you’ve got some aggression with my name on it. Seems like it would do us both a little good.”  
Oliver eyed her for a moment longer, shook his head, shrugged, and then he joined her in the center of the room. There, he eased into his fighting stance. He kept tighter and more mobile, rocking on his feet, almost bouncing back and forth.  
“And no holding back because I’m ‘injured,’” she said. “Enemies don’t hold back.”  
“You think I’m your enemy?”  
“Let’s just play pretend.”  
He nodded. “Fine, if that’s what you want.”  
“And one more thing.”  
“Yeah?”  
“No complaining when you lose.”  
“Same goes for you.”  
“Look at that,” Yuffie said, laughing mirthlessly, “Looks like someone found their sense of humor.”

-Disc One-

Oliver held his own. Yuffie was faster, but her injuries left her slow and hesitant. Oliver never exploited these weaknesses. He fought skillfully, with expert precision and care, and he kept pace with her as she attempted to dance around him.  
They finished side-by-side, winded and slightly bruised. After, they went to the surface patio outside of the cafeteria and shared the shade offered by one of the umbrellas. From this side of the building they could see the distant sea. It was a dark black line that covered the width of the horizon. A warm breeze carried the smell of salt to them.  
Yuffie was hunched over the table, hugging her knees, sitting with water Oliver gave her earlier. It was mostly empty now, and she chewed the cap. The fatigue left her feeling productive and, thus, contented. A towel was draped around her shoulder, another gift from Oliver.  
Oliver sat in the chair beside her, reclined back, legs folded, holding his own water. He had a towel draped over his armrest. He had only wiped his face once before folding it up and leaving it there.  
They were there for a few minutes before Oliver spoke. He said, “For what it’s worth, I do agree with Reed. You need your rest.”  
“Of course, you do,” Yuffie said, eyes fixed on the distance. “You’re a suck up!”  
“Hey! I am not!”  
“You are,” she said. “If you don’t want to be one, then stop sucking up.”  
“I’m not a suck-up, Yuffie. I’m just worried.”  
“Then you’re a worried suck-up,” she said. “And there’s nothing to worry about. I’ve been through...”  
“Way worse. You keep saying that.” He leaned forward in his seat. “Listen, I know you’re a hero of the Jenova War. Everyone does. You talk about it all the time, but that was a long time ago, and things have changed. The world has changed. And so have you.”  
“I’m not talking about the Jenova War.”  
“Then what are you talking about? The Deep Ground Incident? And how much help were you to Vincent in the end?”  
Now, Yuffie sat up, and she glared at him.  
“I’m just being honest, Yuffie. Sure, you’ve been in some dire situations, but you’ve never been in one alone.” He held her gaze, unflinching and unafraid, his disapproval written in the set of his jaw and the fire in his eyes. “But this time you’re alone, because all of us are out of our depths. We’re not heroes. So, what if YOU’VE made it through worse. We haven’t. I haven’t, and Daisy hasn’t. And I don’t know if you have what it takes to drag us out like they dragged you.”  
Yuffie opened her mouth to speak and closed it when she had nothing say. Daisy’s wounds weighed heavily on her, as did the bloody bandages and the sight of the other woman, torn in half by a massive blade. Unable to speak, Yuffie chewed her cap lid and glared at him like a toddler.  
Oliver took his towel and shoved it away in its bag along with his water bottle. Then, he stood, slipping the bag up onto his shoulder. Then, he waited there beside her. “And it’s not that I don’t believe in you—either of you. It’s that seeing Daisy torn up like that...” His voice shook. “I just want you to be safe, okay?”  
“Thanks,” Yuffie said, her pout lingering. “But I can take care of myself.  
“I know, and we’ve talked about that, but this the Emerald Lotus we’re talking about,” he said. “Listen, I’ve been looking into them, after what happened to you two, and they’re big trouble, Yuffie. They’re gaining momentum, and what they are saying sounds good to a lot of people.”  
“Stupid people,” Yuffie said, but she remembered the rally. She frowned around her bottle. “They’re crazy.”  
“Stupid people? Or maybe they’re scared, Yuffie. Look at the world! At the W.R.O.! There’s a lot of unchecked power there.”  
Yuffie glared now. She pulled the water away from her lips and slammed it down on the table. “Oh, come on! You can’t be serious here. What? Do you think Shinra was better?”  
“No, and I don’t think the Emerald Lotus does, either. I just think—maybe there should be more than just the two options.”  
“Where in the world is this coming from, Oliver? What, are you so scared that you’re going to start doubting us now? We’re doing good work, saving people, protecting them from the bad guys who would use them or use materia to hurt them. Think about all of the things Shinra did, that they did with Materia, and what could be done if it’s not under control.”  
“Exactly, and now the W.R.O. is hoarding it for themselves.” He shook his head and stepped away from the table. “It doesn’t matter now, though,” he said, adjusting his bag and stopping at the door. “This is what it is. So, what are you going to do with yourself now that you’re off active duty?”  
Still frowning, Yuffie tossed her bottle away into a nearby trash bin. “What do you think?”  
“Knowing you? You’re going to keep going just to spite Reed.”  
A small smile blossomed onto Yuffie’s face. She chuckled to herself. “Probably, but not JUST to spite him. I mean, the spite helps.” She looked him in the eyes. “Why? You going to tattle?”  
Oliver, smiling as well, paused. He shook his head, and the smile faded. “No, but I will warn you to be careful, if for no other reason than this Lotus guy sounds dangerous.”  
“He is,” she said, and she looked out into the distance. The sun was dipping, burning the sky into a brilliant orange. “But that’s all the more reason that he needs to be stopped and stopped hard.”


	5. Disc One, Mission 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> During the founder's day ceremony in Edge town square, the Emerald Lotus make a move.

Edge: Town Square\  
Meteor Fall had forever changed the world. In the wake of the final battle with Sephiroth, Midgar was destroyed. The Sister Ray, along with the Holy spell, caused reactors to erupt in a furious display of the planet’s power. The sky glowed, on that day, and the world shook.  
Survivors from the slums and the plate alike gathered together, and they founded a new city on the outskirts of the old. Called Edge, it became a refuge for some, a home in time, and a fresh start for everyone. Working together, the people of Edge built for themselves a bright new future, and they clung to it tightly. Since, they then, they endured many a trial, including Sephiroth’s Remnants and return, as well as the invasion of Deep Ground and the activities that followed.  
Once a year, to celebrate the founding of the city and its continued survival, the populace took to the streets with floats, balloons, and fireworks. This Founding Festival, as it was called, started as an informal gathering that quickly grew into a city-wide event. In time, it even drew the attention of nearby cities and brought in crowds. With the W.R.O.’s investment in the city, which it often called its throne, the festival flourished further.  
Yuffie spent her time with Tifa and the kids at the festival. They woke early and walked the streets, visiting sidewalk markets and enjoying food and games. By noon, they were ready for a break and took lunch at a small, street side cafe near the town square. The sky was clear and blue, that day, and the air warmed by unrestrained sunlight.  
Leaning back in her chair, stretching her arms overhead, Yuffie took the city in. People had flooded the streets. Streamers were hung from every building. The Edge she knew was lost in the hubbub, which was good. Normally, the town was all cement and steel, a testament to mankind’s ingenuity and resolve colored on in muted greys. The festival, however, and the people, brought it to life. That day, the city shined.  
It had been days since she left the Lodge, calling Tifa for a ride and refusing to go back. She had grown lazy and, in her own eyes, soft in the time, sulking around the bar and coming out only at Tifa’s insistence. Sometimes, Tifa liked to send her on errands. It was just to keep Yuffie busy and, while Yuffie complained, she was also secretly grateful. When left to herself she thought, about Reed, about Lotus, and about Daisy.  
Tifa gathered the plates together after their meal and stacked them carefully with the silverware on-top. “I’m glad you could make it out with us,” she said, speaking as she always did, with a genuine, motherly warmth. Yuffie had been sour for days, and if Tifa minded, she certainly didn’t show it. She was as Yuffie always remembered her, tall, strong, graceful, and always forgiving. Even when Yuffie sulk about the bar, Tifa cleaned up after her with the sober patience of a saint. “And it’s been nice to have someone help me keep an eye on the kids with Cloud off again.”  
“We don’t need an eye on us,” Denzel said, sulking in the corner. As he got older, he got taller, and he got moodier. At times, he reminded Yuffie of Cloud as Cloud was when they first met, solemn and laconic. It made Yuffie laugh sometimes, because the older Marlene got, the more even-tempered the young woman became to compensate.  
Yuffie spared a glance at Denzel, flashed a grin, and rested her head in her arms, staring across the table at Tifa. “Where is Cloud, anyway?”  
“Working,” Tifa said, her tone soft. “He’s always working anymore.”  
“Got to pay the bills, doesn’t he?”  
“Of course, but I’m a bit worried this time,” Tifa said. “It’s not the usual courier work he does.”  
“Then what is it?”  
“Something for Reeve,” Tifa said, sweeping her long hair back over her shoulder. “They wouldn’t tell me the details of it.”  
“Oh. One of those,” Yuffie said. She chewed her straw and blew some bubbles into her iced tea.  
From where they were sitting, they could see a large, bulb-like object stationed in the center of the city. A green tarp was leashed to it and held in place by a series of thick riggings that were worked into the asphalt. The W.R.O. emblem—a bronze atlas showing the world they wished to regenerate—was emblazoned on the tarp.  
Yuffie sat up to regard it. “Wonder what they’re doing over there.”  
“I think that’s the airship Cid was talking about.” Tifa stood from the table and bent at the waist just long enough to get a better look. “He was talking about the thing years ago. I have to admit, I wasn’t sure he would ever really finish it.”  
Yuffie leaned back in her chair, holding her stomach and groaning to herself. “Ugh. I wish he hadn’t finished it.”  
“Why,” Marlene asked. She had been quiet to this point, scooping ice cream into her mouth and pretending not to notice whenever Denzel stole a bite. “Airships are amazing. They make it so easy to travel, even over long distances. Without them, I wouldn’t be able to see papa nearly as much.”  
Yuffie grinned, and she reached across and messed Marlene’s hair. “Leave it to the book worm to think like that.”  
“She gets motion sickness,” Denzel said, pointedly, as he continued sulking.  
“Well,” Yuffie said, standing up and leaving the table. “Looks like they’re about done setting up now. We should head over and nab the best spots.”  
“Good idea.” Tifa stood with her and directed the children to do the same. Everyone gathered their trash and tossed it into the bin. Then, while Tifa took the dishes back, Yuffie waited with the kids on the sidewalk. When they finished, it hardly looked like they had even ate there at all.  
The stage was completed when they arrived and the W.R.O. official took their places around it. Reeve moved among them, greeting people and offering smiles. He was as tall and thin as Yuffie remembered him, but the years of hard work were showing. His face had more lines than she remembered and his hair more gray than before. He stayed healthy, though, and carried with himself his characteristic vitality. Watching him, Yuffie wondered where he got all of his energy from.  
Half an hour passed as people gathered around them. It reminded Yuffie of the rally, though the energy was different. There was tension, but it was excitement and joy. Families were gathered with children whispering among themselves. Everyone was safe here, protected by the W.R.O., and they were excited to see what new wonders would be brought to them.  
In a way, it reminded Yuffie of everything that she was fighting for.  
Fifteen minutes passed, and people continued to gather. A few hundred were in attendance before a call was made for silence. Among a group of W.R.O. officials—Reeve at their center—a short, round man appeared. His hair was thinning, his face red and wet with sweat. He held a microphone in is pudgy little hands and, looking like a beach ball in a brown suit, took center stage. In front of everyone, he tapped the microphone once, and the single finger-fall echoed through the streets.  
The man winced. “My, that is loud, isn’t it?” He teetered and laughed, rocking on his heels uncomfortable. Yuffie knew him: the mayor of Edge, a sort of incompetent that gave the Emerald Lotus credence. He was jovial and friendly, but the work he did was limited. With the W.R.O. so close and so involved in the town’s politics, he didn’t so much run the city as make appearances and try not to be in the way whenever Reeve came by. Many people didn’t even know him by his face, and those who did certainly weren’t impressed.  
As he stared out at the crowd, who stared back, his cheeks grew shiny with sweat. He wiped it, ineffectually, with the napkin in his pocket. “Anyhow, it is a good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for attending. As you know, it has been many long years since the fall of Shinra and the founding of this city, and we, the people of Edge, that is, have really built something great, haven’t we?”  
He paused for applause. There was none.  
“The, uh, the answer to the question is, of course, yes, yes we have. We’ve faced trials! Difficult trials, and we’ve overcome them, those trials. We certainly did.” He coughed. It, like his previous finger-fall, echoed through the streets. His cheeks turned a more violent red. “But, we, erm, we didn’t survive alone. In fact, we had help. Invaluable help, from the W.R.O., and through those, er, trials, we built a city with their help. And today, that is what we celebrate. Our city. And their help.” He looked back, went wide-eyed, stammered. “Oh, and, uh, oh yes, we have a speaker!”   
The mayor turned, waving a short, fat arm toward the group of suits, and from them Reeve stood. “Er, Chief Director Reeve, of the W.R.O., when you are ready.”  
Reeve smiled and stood. A light applause sounded when he took the microphone, and he smiled again and adjusted his jacket before speaking. His tie-clip shined in the afternoon light.  
“Thank you, mayor, and thank you to everyone here for your warm welcome. I’ve always been fond of Edge, and I visit as often as I can, because the people here are of the strongest stock this world has ever known. Survivors of Midgar, children of the meteor, enduring attacks by Shinra and its remnants time and time again. Some may think that Edge has only survived with the support of the W.R.O., but I feel the opposite is true. We of the W.R.O. can only survive and thrive as we have because of the hard work and faith of people like you.”  
Reeve’s voice, even his very presence, filled the town square. It dwarfed the massive tarp behind him, dwarfed whatever was beneath it. Whenever Yuffie saw Reeve, she was always struck by how tall he was, how neat he dressed, and the precision of his every movement. Even now, surrounded by people, she felt outnumbered by him.  
“The foundation of this city,” he continued, “was not a miracle but providence, and its survival was and is inevitable. When you take people who know nothing but survival and challenge them, then they will rise to meet that challenge, and they will overcome it. As you have, and as you will forever continue to do.  
“And you will not do it alone. We at the W.R.O. will be there at your sides, helping you as you have helped us since day one. We will guide you when you are lost, feed you when you are hungry, and heal you when you are sick. We will not shepherd you, but walk alongside you, meeting each challenge with you and learning from your example. Overcoming it with you.  
“And it is in that spirit that we celebrate today, the day of founding for your lovely city. I have a special treat for you, a surprise of sorts, though I suspect many of you already know what it is.” The crowd cheered and laughed, and he gave another smile. “Now, enough from me.” He turned and gestured toward the rounded tarp behind him. “Now for the real show. Cid, take it away.”   
Behind Reeve, the enormous black straps holding the tarp down snapped off. The tarp fell away, revealing to the crowd the sleek, shining frame of an enormous airship. It was larger than the Shera, with long, steel wings extending from the aft. Enormous fan blades spun, slowly, within the wings. Windows, each a story tall by themselves, covered the front and showed the crew working the bridge. Standing at its helm was Cid, smoking as always, and shouting orders through his cigar.  
Yuffie whistled at the reveal. “Okay, even I’m impressed by this. I mean, I’ll never ride in the damn thing, but I am still impressed.”  
Tifa laughed and nudged Yuffie. “Come on, not even a short ride?”  
“Tifa, please.”  
Projectors shot images of the airship across the town, showing different angles of the ship for everyone to see. Still on stage, Reeve began speaking again, his voice clear until the ship’s engines roared to life. “This is the newest airship straight from Cid’s workshop. Known as the Model 3 Ricard, is boasts a brand new, remodeled engine, upgraded from the original Shera and outclassing her in speed, power, and even fuel efficiency. Within a few months, full production will launch on this model, which will then replace all Model 6 Highwinds and Model 2 Sheras now on the market within only a few years.” He turned his smile on the complex mechane behind him. “And isn’t it a sight to behold?”  
The crowd roared loudly, stomping and flailing in their praise, competing now with the engines in noise. Even Denzel was impressed enough to take time from his adolescent sulking to cheer alongside everyone else. Marlene had to stop cheering long enough to note his excitement and earned a glare from him in return.  
“And now, if we could all wait while Cid gets it into the air, then we can show you that very speed which I was just bragging about.”  
The crowd fell silent, watching with eager anticipation as the airship came to life. The propeller blades built into the wings gained speed, creating a whirlwind of air and noise around them that spread through the streets. People in the crowd had to cover their eyes to keep watching.  
Tifa tied her hair back to keep it out of her face before leaning over to Yuffie and whispering, “I think Reeve wants to stay and see everyone after the meeting.”  
“That sounds nice.”  
“You should talk to him about your boss.”  
Yuffie stuffed her hands into her pockets. “No, I shouldn’t. Reeve’ll probably just take his side.”  
“Come on, Yuffie. Reeve’s not like that. He knows you. He trusts you.”  
“And that’s why he threw me into the Hunters, because he trusts me,” she muttered to herself, and she felt Tifa staring. She hated when Tifa stared. It was always warm, always comforting, always accepting. No matter what Yuffie did or said, Tifa was always there for her, and what made it so bad was that, deep down, Yuffie knew Tifa was genuinely trying to help.  
“He could help,” Tifa said, calmly.  
“I don’t need help,” Yuffie responded, not so calmly.  
“Fine.” Tifa touched Yuffie’s shoulder and squeezed her gently. “Then, I’m glad you’re taking time off to recover.”  
“Only because they blocked my onsite password to everything.” Yuffie crossed her arms. “I’ll be back in once I figure out how to hack it.”  
“And after you’ve recovered.”  
“I’ve been drinking Cure magic like its water for a week now. I’m fine.”  
“But you haven’t been sleeping.”  
The Airship’s roar swelled and interrupted them, much to Yuffie’s delight. It groaned and growled as it lifted into the air. From one of the propellers, a stream of smoke appeared and a flash of fire. The entire thing shook as it lifted above the nearby buildings, the engines whining so loud that it shook the windows along the street.  
Everyone covered their eyes to see it again the sun.  
“Wow,” Marlene cooed, and Tifa smiled at her.  
“It’s great, isn’t it?”  
“Yup! And they’re putting them everywhere, so papa can come back and visit whenever he wants, right?”  
Tifa nodded in response.  
The airship rose, higher and higher, clearing even the tallest buildings and finding home in the air. The black smoke grew thicker and darker as it ascended, and now it created a smoldering wake as the airship shined like a shooting star.  
Yuffie squinted. She could smell fire. A series of pops, like firecrackers echoing inside of a tin, and the left propeller erupted into flame. Shrapnel and screws came loose, littering the streets, crushing cars and buildings beneath.  
The crowd screamed and scattered as shards of hot steel rained down from the airship. The smoke was a plum now, gushing from the open, blazing wound. The Ricard scraped a building, tearing glass as it descended, exposing the framework to the city.  
Yuffie and Tifa pushed their way through the crowd, dragging Marlene and Denzel with them to the stage. Reeve met them there and took the children into his care as the airship made a graceless descent. Another bomb went off, on the other side of the ship, which was tilting for a nosedive.  
Yuffie looked at Tifa. “Hey, Tifa, you been working out lately?”  
“What?”  
“Remember Cloud-tossing?” Yuffie grinned and nodded at the sinking airship.  
“Yuffie, this sounds like a bad idea.”  
Yuffie produced, from her pocket, a green sphere—like a large marble—that gleamed in the sunlight. “Just throw me already.”  
With a deep breath, Tifa hopped from the stage and held her arms out, hands folded together. Yuffie took a ten-foot sprint and leaped, landing in Tifa’s hands. Tifa dug in. The asphalt cracked beneath Tifa, who hurled Yuffie with all of her might. The small, Wutai woman rocketed through the air, like a bullet through the smoke.  
Yuffie met the airship with both feet and covered her eyes as she passed through the bridge windows. She sailed through the bridge itself, catching herself on a handrail to keep from flying through the other side. Her inertia pulled the rail apart.  
Cid, who held the control tightly in a desperate effort to keep the airship aloft—cigar still in his mouth—shouted, “Yuffie? Th’ hell you doin’?”  
“Saving your ass!”   
Yuffie squeezed the Materia tightly and closed her eyes. Green light filled the bridge interior. A sphere of energy spread through the helm and caught the ship in its net. The helm slowed; its descent eased. The rear, still under normal gravity, came apart and crumpled to the ground before the rest of it landed lightly, still intact.

-Disc One-

Yuffie winced when she opened her eyes. The light bleeding in through the fractured glass made her head throb and her stomach churn. She could smell smoke and little else. Around her, the crew was stirring, working hard to help each other to standing or to evacuate the ship.  
She stood and braced herself against the railing. Using her gravity materia, Yuffie was able to slow the bridge’s descent, but she could not save the ship. The crash landing had left the floor slanted and the wind shield fractured. The street around her was littered with debris, while the ship’s aft burned a short distance away. There were bodies there, ones Yuffie would rather not see.  
She staggered her way to the open air and coughed for breath. Her face was black with smoke and soot. Cid walked among the surviving crew, checking them while he chewed an unlit cigarette. Yuffie went to him, wiping her face as best she could on the way.  
“Goddamn.” That was his greeting, delivered with a solemn breath. “The hell is goin’ on here?”  
Yuffie struggled to stay standing. The world continued to spin, and the fresh air was making her feel lightheaded. She braced against the ship for support and eyed the street. There were cars in the distance. The W.R.O. in attendance at the ceremony were already doing what they could to help civilians. Sirens wailed.  
Yuffie coughed until it hurt and then held herself. Cid clapped his hand against her back. “You okay, kid?”  
Yuffie straightened herself and pushed him away. “Are you?”  
He rubbed his nose and chewed his cigarette more. “’I’m fine. Pissed off. What kind of $@*% is going on here? Spent goddamn years working on this goddamn thing, and now it’s just a scrap in the &*#@ing street!” He kicked the airships frame. Something shifted inside as he screamed and clutched his foot.  
“But you don’t know what happened to it?”  
“I did, would I be standin’ here?!”  
Yuffie took another deep breath and forced herself to standing under her own power. Her head was clearing slowly, but her body continued to hurt. Cid watched her with concern.  
“You good to be movin’?”  
“I’ve got to go. I’ve got to...” Yuffie’s phone rang. She answered. “What?”  
“Yuffie Kisaragi.”  
“Shelke?” Yuffie staggered away from Cid and across the street, finding sanctuary against an alley wall. “Shelke, what in the world is going on here?”  
“Sabotage.”  
“Yeah, thanks, I couldn’t figure that out on my own.” She covered her free ear as the siren grew closer. The W.R.O. was arriving in full now, and people were shouting orders. “How? Why? What can you tell me?”  
“I’ve traced the Lotus broadcast.”  
“The Lotus what? How long was I out?”  
“I am uncertain,” Shelke said, “But for clarity, after the airship crashed, the Emerald Lotus made a broadcast and took responsibility for the attack. They have set off bombs across the city and are declaring an official war against the W.R.O.”  
Yuffie stumbled away from the wreckage, toward the far end of the alley. She looked back toward the city and saw four pillars of smoke, evenly spread across the sky. “Oh, no.” She rested against a nearby storefront to keep her legs from giving out. “You said you traced it?”  
“Yes. I’ve already sent the location to your phone. Can you intercept them?”  
“Of course,” Yuffie said. “And can you keep this between us?”  
“You have ten minutes.”  
“Right.” Shelke hung up, and Yuffie checked her phone. Afterward, she pocketed her phone and did some light stretches. “Ten minutes,” she said, a grin on her face. “That’ll be more than enough time to clean up this mess.”

-Disc One-

The streets Yuffie took were empty as she passed. Shelke sent her a map leading across the city to an old Midgar sewage system that was abandoned long ago. When she arrived, she found fetid water and refuse pooled beneath a long, hollow tube of rusted steel, an unfinished relic still struggling against time. All around the water there were footprints left in the mud.  
Yuffie climbed the tubes and entered their depths. She followed through winding curves, breathing shallowly of the stink of rotten feces and stagnant water. Fungus grew along the walls and led her even deeper in. Narrow walkways blocked her path, and she had to shimmy across them, her body tight against the wall, trying hard to ignore the cold, slick feeling against her back.  
The deeper she went, the stronger the smell of decay and damp became. Holes in the walls allowed faded light inside. The tubes went up, and she had to climb hand and knee, trading her phone between her hands to follow the map inside, and her journey came to a stop in the heart of the sewer network.  
The network itself met at a large, domed room with a circular, stone-laid floor. Water flowed around the floor, crisscrossing under steel grates blackened by age. Yellowed light bulbs buzzed overhead, casting a dull light. The air was stale and, at the far end of the room, another set of tunnels, wider than the last, were exposed behind a broken wall.   
Lotus soldiers were at work in the center, packing as Lotus himself oversaw their activities. A tall, tan man stood beside him, hair dark, sideburns looking like a wild mane. He was enormous, almost beast-like, and he was the first to notice Yuffie’s approach.  
The man tapped Lotus on the shoulder, and Lotus turned to regard her. His cloak flourished with his movements. “And so, they sent a dog to sniff us out. Congratulations.”  
“THEY didn’t send anyone,” Yuffie said. She reached into her back pocket and produced a small switch blade. “I’m here on my own.”  
“Seems you’ve chewed through your leash, then. Let’s hope you haven’t gone rabid.”  
“The dog thing is getting real old, pal.”  
The tall man beside Lotus laughed. It was a deep laugh, chest-rattling. “At least he hasn’t called you a bitch, yet.”  
Yuffie flipped the blade, held it backhand, and ignored the man. Her gaze was fixed on Lotus’ mask. “So, you decided to forego the protecting the innocent thing.”  
“I decided to make myself known,” Lotus said, serene. “And what about you? Shouldn’t you be up there tending to the wounded and distraught?”  
“Not my job to clean up your mess. I’d rather kick your ass and drag you up there to do it yourself.”  
“You always did imagine yourself to be the hero, didn’t you? But you’re not. You’re just Yuffie Kisaragi, a little girl playing at saving the world while you hold onto the coat tails of your betters.” He laughed and smirked behind his mask. “You haven’t changed at all.”  
Soldiers gather around him, some carrying weapons, some baring only fists. Lotus stood straight, body obscured, hidden behind his cloak. He appeared at ease. The man beside him towered over the group, his big, sculpted arms folded over his chest as he watched her. Like Lotus, he was entirely at ease.  
“I’ll show you play!” Yuffie threw her knife before charging. One of the soldiers intercepted it, knocking it away while another stepped in with a wide stance. When in range, Yuffie leaped and knocked the second soldier away with a kick to the head. In the air, she spiraled, bringing her foot into the other soldier’s chest. He fell backward, toward Lotus, but was intercepted by the big man.  
The big man held the soldier momentarily before tossing him to the side. Lotus looked at him while Yuffie made a quick retreat, watching them as she hopped away. Lotus said, “Hollis?”  
The tall man, Hollis, flashed a feral grin. “Now, now, Mr. Lotus, you’re the big man in charge here. We can’t have you dirtying your hands on her.” Hollis flexed his big hands, popping his knuckles. “Besides, she didn’t find us on her own. She might be the first one here, but she won’t be the last. Leave me to handle this.”  
“Are you sure?”  
Hollis’ grin broadened and his eyes went wide. He looked more bestial with each passing moment. “This is what you hired me for.”  
Lotus nodded and turned away, his cloak fanning. “Right. Everyone, back up and follow me. Hollis,” he stopped on his way out, “Take care.” Lotus leaped down and disappeared into the hole in the wall.  
Hollis sauntered forward, a big man standing nearly two-feet taller than Yuffie. He could wrap his hands around her midriff and join them, if he chose. “Sorry,” he said in his deep, harsh voice, “But boss man is busy. I’ll be handling you myself, but don’t let that make you sloppy. I’ve seen you in action before and let me tell you this: this’ll be an uphill battle for you.”  
Yuffie glared up at him, hands on her hips. “Oh, I’m going to enjoy wiping the floor with you.”  
Hollis laughed. “Name’s Hollis Ramsey. I guess you could call me an enforcer of sorts. See, my job is when people try to get rid of the boss, I get rid of them, first.” He moved into a tight stance, legs close together, arms tight to his body. Even coiled like this, he remained enormous. “Which means, now, I got to get rid of you.”  
“Trust me,” Yuffie said, slinking, unfolding, “I’ll take care of you, first.”  
“That’s the spirit! Finally, someone ready for a fight for once. So, come on! Show me the strength that saw you though the Jenova War.”  
Yuffie charged up the center, her footsteps echoing around the chamber. When close, she leapt, spun, and came at him with a powerful kick, which he met with his big, meaty forearm. Using her momentum, she kicked off of his arm, flipping over him, and came to a stop behind him.  
She spun again, kicking at his leg to destabilize him, but it was like kicking a solid wall of granite. His muscles were unyielding, and her foot bounced off. He turned on her with a smile and waited, which only made her angrier. She punched him in the face, as hard as she could, repeatedly, until she felt blood, and then retreated. Both hands were wet and red with blood, but Yuffie didn’t know whose blood it was.  
Hollis laughed and followed her retreat. “That the best you can do?” He wiped away the blood, revealing a swollen nose and lip. His sideburns were bristled, giving him the appearance of a wild animal. Lunging, he grabbed her by the shoulders and held her in place while driving his knee forward into her gut.  
It felt like a cannon blast. All of the air left her in a hurry, and she coughed and staggered away, struggling to remain standing. She tried to kick at him, but he merely seized her once more and tossed her across the room. She landed on her back and rolled once, onto her face.  
The battle stopped, briefly, as Yuffie caught her breath. It hurt, what he was doing to her, but it wasn’t anything she hadn’t suffered before. Pushing herself to standing, she steadied herself, centered herself. The battle was nothing new to her, and it was hollow. He had strength, and she had speed, but she would never be able to whittle him down fast enough.  
Tifa came to mind, tall, strong, swift, and Yuffie thought again of the Death Blow. It was too slow to work on Lotus, but Hollis was different, and she was never afraid to try again. Planting her feet, she closed her eyes and breathed through the pain until it was far from her thoughts.  
She cleared her mind, pushing away the good and bad, leaving room only for the blow, for the air she breathed, and when she opened her eyes, she could see him clearly. Energy suffused her body. Every ounce of her, she knew, would have to go into her fist. Each step, each breath, and one forceful, powerful strike. She charged, and he met her with a humorless grin. It wasn’t bloodlust but undiluted rage that powered him. For a moment, Yuffie thought to retreat, but she didn’t have time. If she didn’t end the fight, then she would never leave the sewers alive.  
When she entered range, she planted her feet, and she threw herself into the punch. All of her followed through, all of her became a fist. She struck him, at full force, in the solar plexus, and she felt the world move.  
Hollis’ grin held. He remained firmly rooted in place. With all of the force in her tiny body she couldn’t move him an inch and so was moved instead. There were scuffs where her feet had been, and her fist was bleeding.  
He breathed and then laughed. “I have to admit, that was a pretty good punch, but I don’t think you did it right.” He said that, and then he hit her. Lotus was fast and precise, like a bullet. Hollis was a wrecking ball. Normally, she would see it coming. Normally, she would dodge. This time, she was dug in, feet planted, hand burning. She saw him swing, followed the movement, but didn’t have the time to react.  
With one blow, she was knocked to her knees, bloodied. Then, he kicked her and sent her spinning and skipping across the floor like a stone on water. Her entire body was numb from the pain, and she bounced into the wall before coming to a stop.  
Hollis sauntered toward her, his big body blurred and obscuring the light like a great shadow. He towered over her, like death, and stared down at her while she tried desperately to stand. She wasn’t sure what she looked like, scrambling and struggling, but it seemed to amuse him. “What you did earlier, I think it goes something like this…”  
Move, she told herself, but her body wouldn’t listen. She had to hold the wall to keep herself standing, and she was too hurt to escape and too weak to block. She stared, as he braced himself, and he punched her so hard in the stomach that she went through the wall. The brickwork crumbled around her, and she was left limp, hanging from his enormous hand.  
He dropped her and dusted off his meaty palms. Her world was fading, and she prepared for the ground’s cool embrace. Instead, she found strong arms, soft and firm, that carried her away. There was a swirl of brown hair and an encouraging whisper.  
The last thing Yuffie saw was Tifa, charging Hollis, and Hollis losing ground.


	6. Disc One, Mission 5

Midgar Region: W.R.O. Hunter’s Lodge\  
Yuffie woke again in the Lodge’s hospital. A splash of pain followed her into reality, starting in her stomach and spreading out like a wave. It hurt to open her eyes, and it hurt more to realize that she was back in the same bed as a week ago. She hadn’t felt this low since the fight with Nero and Deepground.   
She stared at the ceiling, counting the tiles. The light hurt still, but she kept her eyes open and breathed through the pain. Each intake made her want to vomit. Each exhale brought her a fit of coughs. She took some comfort in knowing that it could be worse—she could have not woken up at all.  
A few minutes passed before Tifa entered the room. She had been waiting there. Knitted fabric was left in the seat where she had been. She yawned as she approached, and she smiled when she saw Yuffie. “Oh, you’re awake. That’s good.”  
Yuffie turned to see Tifa. Denzel and Marlene were trailing after, both looking tired, but they smiled at her, and Denzel ran over to see her while Marlene waited patiently. Yuffie smiled back. “I am awake,” she said, pushing herself to sitting with extreme effort. Her entire body felt like pudding. “Mind telling me exactly what happened?”  
“Of course not.” Tifa pulled her chair over and folded the knitting on her lap. “What do you remember?”  
“Cid’s airship exploding and a big guy with sideburns.” She looked Tifa in the eyes. “He hit me, didn’t he?”  
“He did,” Tifa said. “Shelke called me after giving you the info, and I decided to go in as back-up.”  
“That little—still, I guess I owe her.”  
Tifa smiled. “You do,” she said. “I found you and Hollis. Shortly after, Reeve showed up and searched the tunnels.”  
“Did he hit you?”  
“No,” Tifa said, sweeping her hair back. Yuffie rolled her eyes.  
“Of course not,” she said, sighing. “I mean, good job, I guess. Was there anything in the tunnels?”  
“Nothing.”  
“Damn.”  
“That’s not all. Apparently, the floats around town were rigged to blow, so as we were trying to figure it all out, the city was blowing to bits. Right now, we’re trying to figure out where the floats came from, but no one is talking. It seems like everyone is either too afraid or too loyal to say anything.”  
“Loyal? To those guys?” Yuffie shook her head. “If that’s the case, then the world has gone nuts.”  
“Whatever it is, it’s working. Reeve is getting nothing.”  
“Something will come up,” Yuffie said. “They’re terrorists, after all.”  
“Regardless,” Tifa said, packing away her things. She pointed at Yuffie, “For now, you need to worry about you and rest. Everything else can be taken care of later.”  
“No. No time for rest.” Yuffie, groaning, forced herself to standing through sheer force of will. It hurt, initially, but it was nothing she hadn’t dealt with before. She braced against the bed until the pain eased.  
Tifa closed in. “Yuffie.”  
“Anything else I need to know?”  
Tifa, rolling her eyes, shook her head. “Well, apparently the Emerald Lotus has officially declared war on the W.R.O. There will be more attacks, and they’ll be bigger next time. He said that he wanted to show people how powerless the W.R.O. really is.”  
Yuffie scoffed and crossed her arms. “The guy’s a lunatic.”  
“Maybe but we should be careful.”  
Disbelief turned to anger, and Yuffie scowled. “Oh, trust me, I know. I’ve had first-hand experience with him.” Yuffie sat on the edge of the bed and held her side. For the first time in her life, she felt tired. Rest was the last thing she wanted but, with her mind so foggy and her head so hot, it felt like the only thing she needed. She looked sternly into Tifa’s eyes. “And Hollis? Who the hell is he?”  
Tifa shrugged. “I don’t know much. They’ve brought him in for questioning, and that’s all I’m allowed to know.”  
“Brought him here?”  
“Apparently,” Tifa said. “I remember there being some heated arguments about it, but Reed insisted.”  
“Why? Edge has its own holding cells, and its own security. It’d be the best place to trust.”  
“I think Reed just wanted him out of town,” Tifa said. “The city is tense right now, after everything happened.”  
“His good intentions don’t make it any less stupid. This facility is too small to put up a proper defense and too localized to survive bombardment, and clearly the Emerald Lotus isn’t shy about collateral damage.”  
“Calm down,” Tifa said, squeezing Yuffie’s shoulder. “Everyone is doing the best they can, and Reed is as scared as everyone else. The peace we’ve all fought for is crumbling around our feet.”  
“Yeah, yeah.” Yuffie sighed, breathing through her pain, her nausea, and her confusion. Then, she laughed. “Think this is how Shinra felt when everything was falling apart?”  
Tifa allowed a small laugh. “Probably,” she said, “But this isn’t a permanent solution. H.Q. will be in soon, and that will be the safest place for him.”  
Another deep breath, and the battle replayed in Yuffie’s head. Hollis was a tank, an impenetrable shell housing explosive power. With strength like his, she couldn’t imagine transporting him anywhere he didn’t want to go. It reminded her of Deepground, of the attack on W.R.O. HQ, of Azul the Cerulean, and of all the carnage.  
Tifa was there with them, though, and Reeve would be there soon. It felt good for Yuffie to have her friends around again. With them there, she wouldn’t be kept on the sidelines anymore, and she could take the war to the Emerald Lotus without fear of being reprimanded. They would remind everyone watching exactly how they beat Sephiroth and all of the fools who followed after him.  
Then, Yuffie thought, she would have the opportunity to personally rip the mask off of Lotus’ face and feed her fist to him in front of everyone.

-Disc One-

Yuffie drifted off to sleep with Tifa watching. When she woke, Tifa was gone and the children had left with her. This left Yuffie alone in the hospital room, with only the gentle buzz and beep of machines to keep her company. The lights were dimmed. Shadows clung to the ceiling, staring back at Yuffie as she stared at them.  
She breathed and relived each punch as she exhaled. Hollis was unstoppable, a force of nature in human flesh. Her stomach ached. Her chest rattled. Her pride was hurt most of all. She remembered her father saying once that her pride would get her into trouble. Sometimes, she felt like trouble just followed her around, waiting to kick her down whenever she built herself up too high.  
Lotus followed her, too, in her dreams and in waking. He hid behind his mask, even in her thoughts, stabbing at her with words that echoed endlessly inside of her. Another lost battle, another night spent in a hospital room. It was beginning to feel useless. She was more than weak, being saved by everyone. Tifa, Daisy, Vincent, Cloud, and everyone else, the only thing she consistently managed to do on her own was get in over her head.  
Her thoughts made her restless. She stood, legs unsteady, stomach churning, and pulled the catheter from her arm. Her clothes were in a nearby dresser. They had been freshly washed and folded. She removed her gown, felt at the tender bruises still lining her body, and then dressed. On her way out, she checked the bed where Daisy had been. It was empty.  
Outside, she found Reed waiting. He had his head down, his hands folded neatly and put held up as if in prayer. As she left the room, he opened his eyes and met her with a tired glare. She returned it as best as she could.  
“Ms. Kisaragi,” he said, “Excuse me, but I don’t think you’ve been discharged yet.”  
“I have.”  
“By whom?”  
“By me,” she said. “I gave myself a clean bill of health.”  
He had been leaning against the wall, but he pushed off to stand tall and block her path. “Return to bed. You need the rest.”  
“I know my body, Reed, and I’m fine.”  
“I wasn’t asking, Kisaragi.” His glare sharpened and his body grew tense. “I am telling you. Get back to bed. Now!”  
Yuffie, still shaken and still tired, had to lean against the door frame for support. She swallowed a fit of coughs that were threatening to erupt. Bracing against the doorway with one arm, she stretched herself to full height and stared up into his eyes. “Make me.”  
“Always the petulant child, aren’t we? Rebelling against any authority you can find.”   
Reed approached her, seizing her tight by the arm and dragging her back into the room. He threw her back down onto the bed and, when she tried to stand, struck her hard in the gut. She curled up, coughing and holding herself, as he stood over her.  
“Well, if you insist on fighting me, then you had better be up to the challenge!”   
Writhing and wheezing against the bed frame, Yuffie said, “You’re a real bastard,” and then squealed as he lifted her and tossed her onto the bed proper. Then, she watched him smooth back his hair before he dragged a chair over. He sat calmly, folding his hands and sitting forward to stare her in the eyes. Yuffie stared back, holding her gut, breathless. “What do you want now?”  
“To talk,” he said, without humor. “And, as always, you make it difficult for me.”  
“Stuff it,” she said, and she used the wall to push herself up. It hurt to move as pain crawled up her spine and spread through her. After the way he moved her, it hurt to even breathe. “If you’re going to lecture me, then just stuff it, because I don’t care to listen.”  
Reed snorted, laughed, and then turned a sharp glare on her. His tone was harsh, acerbic, but he smiled. “Always the same. You’ll never change, will you?” He stood. “Fine. If you want it that way, then this is how you do it.” He slid the chair back against the wall. “You’ll be discharged tomorrow,” he said.  
There was a pause, pregnant with meaning, and then Yuffie said, “And?”  
He stopped at the door, his hand on the knob, and feigned surprise. “Oh, now you want to talk?”  
“What are you doing to me?”  
“What I should have done long ago,” he said. “You’re suspended. Effectively immediately. You will not be in contact with anyone from the Hunters...”  
“You have no right!”  
“I have every right,” he shouted. “What were you even doing there, chasing down Lotus? I took you off duty, put you into forced leave!”  
“And I was there off duty,” she said in return, shouting back at him. It hurt her stomach to do it, but she felt it was important to match him word for word, shout for shout. “Someone had to protect the people!”  
“Is that what you call running, blind, into danger and nearly getting yourself killed?” He laughed as he said it.  
“It’s what I call doing your job for you,” she said in retort, and she felt smug afterward. That smugness didn’t last long. A bitter laugh ended it quickly as Reed threw his head back gave an empty bark.  
“And a fantastic job you did, injuring everyone around you.” He looked her in the eyes. “There are people—an entire military worth of people—who are already hunting Lotus for us, but you think you are the only one equipped to do it. Except you’re not. Hell, you weren’t even fit for duty, and all you managed to do is get in the way.”  
“I got us that Hollis guy.”  
“Tifa got us Hollis, and she saved you in the process.”  
Yuffie, angry and hurt, stepped from the bed. She wasn’t sure what she was doing or why, but she took a swing at him, and she missed. He knocked her hand away and struck her in return, once in the chest, before grabbing her around the throat and dragging her back to the bed. Then, he stared her in the eyes. He was close, so close that she could smell his cologne, thick and pungent.  
“Which is what you do best—act recklessly and expect other people to come in and clean up your messes. You claim to be a hero of the Jenvoa War, but you nearly cost your allies everything when you took their materia, didn’t you? You’re no hero, Yuffie Kisaragi. You are a selfish little girl who takes whatever she wants and expects to walk away with the stories.”  
“I...”  
“And the W.R.O. has so many other things to worry about than satisfying your personal fictions. It has cities to watch, nations to run. We, the Hunters, have more to do. Our job is to find materia and to control its distribution. To keep it out of the hands of those who would use it for negative ends. That it is. That is all. And while the Emerald Lotus may have their hands in some materia, I assure you, they are so much more, which makes them someone else’s problem.”  
“But if we all work together...”  
“We won’t have time to do our jobs properly,” Reed snapped, releasing her onto the bed. “Maybe, if we unify, we can solve one problem—the Emerald Lotus—but at the cost of other problems cropping up.” He took a deep breath and adjusted his jacket. “And then who will fix that? Do we solve each problem as it comes, one at a time, or do we do our jobs as they are assigned and trust others to do their own jobs on their own?”  
Yuffie slumped into the bed, staring silently ahead. It hurt to breathe and, increasingly, to think. She hated Reed, hated every hair on his head and every word from his mouth, but she didn’t have the energy to argue anymore. It wasn’t that she thought he was right. The problem was that she didn’t immediately think he was wrong.  
She turned her gaze downward and stared—glared—at her feet, and she tried hard not to cry. It reminded her of childhood and of being scolded by her father. “Well, they’re not doing enough,” she whispered.  
“We’re doing what we can,” he said calmly and without his previous venom. “And they’re doing more than you ever could on your own. Running ahead into danger may look heroic, but all it does is get you hurt.”  
“Whatever,” Yuffie breathed, and she curled up on the bed and hugged her knees tightly.  
Reed tugged at his cuffs. “I expected as much. And, for the record, you ARE suspended from service, for your safety and for the safety of others. Should you continue on this path, then I will take matters up with the Director myself. This is your last warning, Yuffie. No contact, no service, not unless we contact you ourselves.”  
Reed left the room, calm and collected, and that hurt worse than if he had screamed at her again. Alone, Yuffie pulled the blanket over her and turned her back to the door. Her body hurt, but her broken bones would mend. She wasn’t so sure about her broken spirit, however. Unable to hold back, she cried like a child for the first time in years, and she kept crying until she fell asleep.

-Disc One-

The next day, Yuffie wandered down to the cafeteria before she was dicharged. Slumped down alone at one of the long, steel tables, she picked mindlessly at the mushy rice they had served her. The damage done to her was primarily internal and the cure materia had done all it could for her. Now, she would have to rely on her own faculties to recover.  
She hadn’t slept well. The conversation with Reed was hurting her more than Hollis’ fists had. She didn’t think of her betrayal of the team in Wutai often, keeping it in the same box she used for the battle with Nero and, more recently, Daisy and the Lotus rally. Reed, however, had managed to pull it out and leave it open in her sight, and she wasn’t so sure that he was in the wrong anymore. Half of what she did, she was realizing, was being saved by others.  
She closed her eyes and focused her breathing. Her lungs felt bruised, but the pain was clarifying, and she used it to keep dark thoughts at bay. When she was alone and on her back in the bed, sometimes, it felt like she was floating unsteadily on water, like she would drown in all of her reveries.  
“Yuffie?”  
A familiar voice pulled her back into reality, and she sat up and found Daisy wheeling toward her. Daisy wasn’t in the gown anymore, instead wearing a black tee and a pair of green medical scrub pants. Her long hair was back in a ponytail, and she greeted Yuffie with a tired smile. Oliver walked beside Daisy, carrying two trays of mushy rice. Once Daisy had pulled up, he set her tray on her lap.  
“Daisy?”  
“What’re you doing out? I thought you were injured.” Daisy knitted her brows. “Actually, you okay? You don’t look so well.”  
Yuffie scoffed. “Like you have room to talk.” She cast her gaze down and stabbed at her rice.  
“At least she’s taking the time to get better,” Oliver said, seating himself. Yuffie blew him a raspberry.   
Daisy laughed. “Honestly, just be careful, please. Don’t push yourself too hard.”  
Yuffie waved them off and leaned back. She stirred her food absently. “So, Daze, how is your recovery coming along, anyway?”  
“The medics have done what they can,” Daisy said, and she raised her top enough to expose a large, clean bandage taped across her torso. She gave a glowing smile as she lowered it. “I should be fine and back to service in a few days, though.”  
Looking Daisy over, Yuffie frowned. “Then what’s with the chair?”  
Daisy nodded toward Oliver, who gave his own frown in response. “This one. He also got me this.” Daisy reached back into the satchel that hung over the back of the wheelchair and produced a box of chocolates. Opening it, she let Yuffie pluck a few.  
“Well, isn’t that sweet of him.” Yuffie smiled, toothily. “And why, exactly, don’t I get chocolates, Oliver?”  
Oliver’s frown deepened.  
“So, you’ll be back on soon,” Yuffie asked, stealing a few more chocolates.  
Daisy leaned back in her chair, stretching. “I. Can’t. Wait. I’m going nuts hearing about everything that happened in Edge.” She sat forward and looked Yuffie in the eyes. “And what exactly DID happen there, anyway? No one around here will tell me anything worth hearing.”  
“Just a lot of noise,” Yuffie said, slouching again. She rested her head on her arms like an agitated child. “Reed gave me a talking to, doesn’t want me involved. So, he’ll probably put you on something else, I’m sure, while he sweeps everything else under the rug. Or into someone else’s hands.”  
“He’s trying to keep us focused on our job,” Oliver said, and he earned a glare from Yuffie for it. When he looked at Daisy and found her glaring, too, he sighed. “I’m just saying, we’re here to deal with materia and materia smuggling, not counter-terrorism. We’re not a military, and with two failed attempts to stop them, I feel like it’s pretty clear that we’re in over our heads.”  
“Maybe if we had more support, then we wouldn’t be,” Yuffie countered.  
Oliver rolled his eyes and looked to Daisy for support. “Come on, you’re more level-headed than this. You just got out of the infirmary. Yuffie’s been there twice already. They have numbers, and we’re just three people, fit for infiltration and subterfuge, not war. Reed may come down on you hard, but he’s right this time.”  
Daisy frowned. “Oliver.”  
He looked between them, stared at Daisy, and took a deep breath. “I’m just worried about you two.”  
“We’re fine,” Daisy said, taking his hand and giving a squeeze. She looked across the table at Yuffie and smiled imploringly. “Right, Yuffie?”  
“Yup.” Yuffie stood from the table and felt unsteady on her feet for a moment. Even after all of her rest, her head still wasn’t on straight, but she wouldn’t admit that in front of them. Instead, she took up her tray and said. “Listen, I want to stretch my legs before I’m shipped out. I’ll talk to you later, Daisy.”  
“Okay. We should meet up and compare notes soon.”  
Yuffie nodded, waved, and left. Normally, in this sort of mood, she would pick a direction and walk. She spent most of her life never really knowing where she was going, just that she was going, but lately it didn’t seem like enough. Lately, she wanted a destination, but everywhere she landed felt unstable, unsafe. It was like she has nowhere stable to plant her feet, nowhere that she could truly call home.  
As she left the cafeteria, she thought of Edge, and of Wutai, and of all the people she knew and loved, and she thought of what they all, truly, meant to her.

-Disc One-

Yuffie walked the halls absently for a moment and then soon left the building entirely. She went beyond the front gate, into the grasslands between Midgar and the sea, and she came to rest in the warm sands beside the ocean. Dark grass grew in patches nearby. The pale sky drifted by, cloudless, but she could feel a charge on the air. A storm was coming.  
She shivered. It was warm, but she could feel a cool breeze stirring and it left her hairs on end. Alone, she thought about the recent battles in her life. She thought of Lotus and of Hollis, and she thought of Reed and of her cold, lonely nights in the infirmary.  
After the attack on Edge, she knew that Reeve would take interest in the Emerald Lotus problem, but she wasn’t so sure that he still supported her. He would call on those he really trusted, on Cloud, Barrett, and Vincent. He would rely on them, like he always did.  
Normally, it would leave her angry. She was a soldier, a great ninja from Wutai, but after her recent battles—her recent failures—she wasn’t so sure anymore. It hurt to admit it, but the others were reliable, and she wasn’t anymore. There was a certain veracity to what Reed had said: she never saved the day; she was just there when the day was saved. Her fame was earned only through proximity.  
The W.R.O. had Hollis, and that meant answers about the Emerald Lotus, and despite all of her effort, she wasn’t the one who did it. Though she was first on the scene, it was Tifa who won the day, Tifa who had traded her leather gloves for a wet rag and an apron. Tifa, the team mother who never had a taste for combat to begin with. And all Yuffie did—all Yuffie ever did—was get in the way until someone else could come in and win the fight.  
Her phone rang and pulled her from those thoughts. Yuffie sat up slowly, her body cold and racked with shivers. The light had faded from the sky without her notice, and the wind was whipping up the sand. The air was thicker now, and she could smell the storm mixing with the salt in the air. Another ring and she answered. “Yeah?”  
“Yuffie Kisaragi.”  
Yuffie curled up for warmth. She hugged her legs with her free arm. “Who else would it be, Shelke?”  
“I am just being careful,” Shelke said in her empty tones. “You do not sound well.”  
“I’m...” Yuffie wiped her eyes. She couldn’t remember crying, but her cheeks felt warm. She sniffed and hoped Shelke couldn’t tell anything was wrong. “What do you need?”  
“I have information for you.”  
“I thought I was suspended.”  
“You are,” Shelke said absently. “I will forward you the files for you to read in full later, but there is something which you should know right now: the Emerald Lotus is preparing to make another move soon.”  
“Then tell Reed,” Yuffie said. It felt wrong in her mouth, but she couldn’t think of anyone else to help. “Listen, I’m not on the case anymore. I’m kicked out of the Hunters if I try.”  
“I have already informed him, as well as others,” Shelke said. “Regardless, take care, Yuffie Kisaragi.”  
The line went dead. Yuffie, alone on the beach, shouted into her phone before slamming it shut and tossing it a few feet away. The sky was going dark, the colors of the sky—a bloody red and bruised purple—fading into the approaching slate of the storm clouds. She hugged herself tight to keep the cold away but found it ineffective.  
Closing her eyes, she thought about home. She remembered the warm sea waters of Wutai, the way the water glittered from the mountains in the evening, the cool mist that rose in the mornings. She remembered the pagoda towering in the distance, almost touching the sky. No matter where she went when she was a kid, she could always see it and always find her way home. When she was really young, she used to visit her father at the very top of the pagoda, and she never told anyone, but she also used to think that he was the one who held up the sky.  
Her wounds throbbed, but her reveries eased the pain. Old memories kept her warm, even as the clouds swallowed the sky. She met the rain alone, shivering in the dark, a distant childhood memory the only thing she had to comfort her.


	7. Disc One, Mission 6

Midgar Region: W.R.O. Hunter’s Lodge\  
Yuffie returned late in the evening, squinting as she approached. The airfield surrounding the Lodge glowed in the twilight, pale ghostly bulbs that illuminated the stirring dust. The rain had soaked her through and she shivered in her approach, feeling more sick and fatigued than she had been before she left. More than that, she felt despondent, disconnected from the world and from herself. Aside from the storm, she was accompanied only by silence.  
At her approach, she noticed something wrong. There were black helicopters settled on the field and soldiers moving about. In the distance, she saw them moving, precisely and strategically, in small squadrons. She paused and kneeled down, watching their movements. The rain had covered their approach.  
The lights dimmed and flickered before going out entirely. In the distance, she heard an explosion and felt it rumble in the ground. Yuffie cursed to herself and ducked down further, approaching carefully in the fading light.  
The Emerald Lotus had been quiet since the attacks. The interrogation of Hollis hadn’t turned up much, from what she knew. Files on him told of a North Corel survivor turned mercenary. He had as much reason to hate Shinra as anyone else in the world, and he told them that the W.R.O. was nothing but history repeating itself.  
Lotus himself was a complete mystery. Theories in the mess hall had said that his trail went cold in the old Midgar sewer system. The attack itself had been planned for months before. The threat wasn’t as new in the making as they thought. It had been a wound festering for years.  
This new attack led Yuffie to know something else: the parade was a feint. Edge was terrified, and the W.R.O. was just as shaken. It all proved to Yuffie that the Emerald Lotus was on no one’s side, but they still seemed to be gaining support. New people disappeared each day.  
She stopped behind a steel crate outside of the building and ducked beneath it. She took the time to check her phone but found no signal. The Emerald Lotus was being careful here, but this sort of interference wouldn’t be permanent. They were moving quickly and striking quickly, and then they would be moving back out. Inside, she spied the emergency lights coming on, their red glow appearing in flashes in through open doorways.  
She took a deep breath, and she charged the front door.  
Smoke filled the halls. Gunfire echoed around her. Yuffie could see only by the flashing of the emergency lights, which blurred everything into a haze. She sprinted first toward the infirmary, to check on Daisy, but she found no one there. The room was as empty as the halls were.  
She left the infirmary, going deeper into the facility. The Lodge held only one thing of worth—the materia vault. If the Emerald Lotus were attacking for any reason, it would be for that, she was sure. She found the stairs and took them down.  
The first floor of the Hunter’s Lodge—basement 1—was the entrance. It was a web-work of offices. The second floor, deeper below, held the more secured parts of the base. The prison was down there, and so was the vault. Buried beneath concrete and steel, it was the safest place within miles of Edge or Midgar.  
She came to a stop, kneeling beside a stairway wall and peeked out. The holding cells were one way and the vault the other. Smoke and flames rolled away from the vault and poured down the hall, and she could see flashes of green uniforms moving among the chaos.  
Another deep breath. Yuffie doubted Lotus would be there himself, but she knew Hollis would already be free. The vault was under attack, too, which also meant he wouldn’t be alone. It occurred to her for the first time in her life that she might want to wait, leave the trouble for someone else, but she didn’t like the thought. She pushed it away, focused on the task at hand, and fingered the throwing knife in her belt as she turned the corner.  
Entering the vault, she stepped over two broken bodies of W.R.O. soldiers. The smoke helped to hide her approach, made it easy for her to move. The first Lotus soldier she struck didn’t have time to react. Yuffie had their arm behind her back and their head against the wall in a matter of seconds.  
A second soldier nearby reacted to the subtle noise their partner made. They had their rifle up as she approached, but Yuffie seized them, hands on the soldier’s shoulders, feet planted into the soldier’s chest, and flipped them overhead and into a nearby wall. They landed heavily, unconscious.  
Yuffie adjusted her grip on her dagger before she rose. Stopping beside the vault, she looked in and found Hollis inside, flanked by three Lotus soldiers. Materia was scattered around them, glittering in the dim light. Six more soldiers inside were, busy loading materia into large trunks they had brought with them..  
Hollis snorted a laugh and turned. He had his big arms crossed over his chest. There was a wild look in his eyes. “Well, well, look who’s here. Hey there, girly. Thought you’d still be in intensive care.”  
Yuffie winced. Seeing him made her body ache, her stomach tense, but she forced herself to stand straight. “I was getting a good rest, but I heard all the fun down here and thought I’d join in,” she said, flashing her dagger as she entered the vault. “Things are getting out of hand though, big man. Get back in your cell.”  
“Ms. Kisaragi, I thought I told you to leave.”  
Yuffie went stiff, her throat tight. Reed entered behind her, his suit jacket open, revealing a black vest beneath. His neat hair was a mess, and there was blood splashed across his face. An electric rod sparked in one hand. A bracer of materia gleamed on his wrist. “We’ve been compromised,” Reed said, looking past her. “The W.R.O. will be here soon, and we’re not equipped for a full battle. Take what we have and go.”  
“Wait,” Yuffie said, looking between them. Her eyes fell on Oliver, waiting in the hall way, who stared fixedly back at her. “Wait...”  
“I’ve waited so long for this,” Reed said. Lotus soldiers filed past the two of them. Hollis lingered in the hall, beside Oliver, staring back at her. The two of them left then, while Reed undid the cuffs of his jacket and tossed it to the floor. “I’ve always hated you. Hated your impulsivity, your insubordination, and your insistence on getting mixed up in everything around you.”  
“Traitors.” Yuffie breathed the word.  
“Pick yourself up, Kisaragi. Now isn’t the time to cry,” he said. “I want to break you—kill you at your best!”  
Yuffie’s disbelief turned to anger. She glared. “The only thing you’re going to break is your hip, old man. Now, get out of my way. Oliver has some answers to give.”  
Reed gave a sour smile. The materia on his wrist glowed brightly. “You always did have a smart mouth.” The rod in his hand sparked again as he gripped it tight. “Time to teach you some respect.”  
He struck first, swinging his rod swiftly, stabbing it forward. Flashing arcs of light danced along the shaft. Yuffie ducked under the rod and then rolled across the floor, evading a spreading tide of flame that followed her. Heat washed over her back.  
She jabbed at Reed and swiped with her knife, hitting only the air. He sidestepped and brought his rod around in return. They danced together, stepping through flame and debris, narrowly missing with each strike. He landed a punch on her cheek, and she kicked him hard in return. They parted, smiling   
Yuffie felt her tender cheek and grinned. Reed growled in response, hitting the floor and sending a sheet of white ice spreading across its surface. Yuffie leapt over it, landing steadily as the flames were swallowed. Steam and smoke choked the air.  
They met again. Reed blocked two jabs and caught Yuffie in the stomach with his rod, sending a shock through just after she escaped. Before she could retreat completely, however, he caught her again in the stomach with a sharp kick that knocked her into the wall.  
She grabbed his ankle as he tried to retreat and pulled him back toward her, forcing her knife into his shin. He screamed and as he was tipped back, falling flat on the ice with her landing on him, her knee in his stomach.   
Wheezing, he rolled away, leaving his shock rod and clutching his gut.   
“I’ve fought worse than you as a kid.”  
Another growl, and he pushed off the ice, swinging with a wide haymaker, his bracer sparking. Yuffie pulled back, watching his fist glide by, and punched him again, this time in the nose. She felt the cartilage give. Warm blood spread across her knuckles. Yuffie shook the blood from her fingers as he retreated to the wall.  
“You bitch,” Reed shouted. “I will kill you!” He reached for his bracer only to find it gone. Yuffie smiled back at him, holding the bracer up for him to see.  
“Looking for this? Geeze, seems like you’ve grown senile in your old age.”  
“You...”  
“Me,” she said. “What, Reed, did you forget who you’re fighting? Let me remind you.” She dropped the bracer, stopped smiling, and stared him hard in the eyes. “I am the single white rose of Wutai, the hero of the Jenvoa War, and I just kicked your ass. I am the Great. Ninja. Yuffie.”  
Reed stared a moment, and then laughed. He laughed so hard that his entire seized, and he held his stomach, laughing and laughing until he started to cry. “You? You’re nothing but a fool. The biggest fool I’ve ever met!” He scooped up a materia from the floor, smiling with blood in his teeth and dripping from his lips.  
The air went tense and smelled of tin. Yuffie dipped down and sprinted across, her feet leaving prints in the melting ice. Heat moved through her, as a tickle of energy moved up her arm in a flash of light. She leapt through it, sailing through the air, and landing in his chest knee first. Bone gave, and so did his body.  
The materia hit the floor and rolled to a stop at a far wall. Yuffie held him, braced against the wall, wheezing and twitching as the electricity teased her nerves. A deep breath, and she dropped him to the floor and kneeled down beside him. He was unconscious, breathing shallowly, and he was broken, not her.  
He wheezed beside her, slow and steady, and she was glad for it. She hated him, but she still wouldn’t have like to see him die. She stood, and grabbed his bracer on the way out, and she sprinted down the halls, to the stairs, and up toward the surface, where Oliver and Hollis were making their escape.

-Disc One-

Towers of smoke suffused the air, the wind stirring them into a murky cocktail that darkened the sky. Clouds parted to reveal a helicopter settled on the asphalt, Lotus soldiers hauling enormous trunks into the interior as well as bags from other soldiers that were working elsewhere.   
Yuffie ran as hard as she could, her lungs burning from the smoke. She was halfway to the helicopter as it started to lift, smoke swirling around it, fire writhing and swelling. The anti-air turrets burned like beacons in the darkness. Two more helicopters, white in color, hummed in the distance, making their slow approach.  
Screaming, Yuffie touched one of the materia fixed to Reed’s bracer and drew power from it. She hurled a ball of flame high up and it broke harmlessly against the helicopter’s underbelly, causing it to sway in the air but doing little else. She ran hard, bent her knees, and jumped, letting one of her own materia carry her through the air.  
The wind whipped at her hair and she landed in the open doorway of the helicopter. Two soldiers drew guns on her, but she had her protection spell ready before landing. She ducked around, kicking one out and disarming the other. A safety cable caught the first, while the cold steel of the helicopter interior caught the other.  
The helicopter rocked as she fought, stirring her stomach. The glow of her materia faded. Hollis sat back, crouched in a seat, watching with a smile. His big body took up more room than two people would, and when he did rise, she could feel the vibrations of each footfall passing through the steel. “Knew we couldn’t trust Reed to finish you off.”  
Oliver caught Hollis by the shoulder and pulled him back. “No.”  
Yuffie braced against the interior walls and tried not to vomit. She watched the two of them, watched the joy drain from Hollis’ face, the anger and disappointment that took its place. There was a brief disagreement, and Hollis backed down, letting Oliver step forward to meet her.  
He looked her in the eyes, appearing almost sorry, and then pushed her out with his foot. His movements were gentle, tender, without hate or malice, but she didn’t have the strength to hold. The movement of the helicopter had sapped everything from her. She fell, limp, and watched the helicopter disappear into the darkness.  
Just before landing, she conjured her protection materia to soften the blow. The pavement broke, but she held together. Only the wind was knocked from her as she recovered.  
She laid there a moment, on the hot asphalt. Fire and smoke rose and spiraled as she listened to the whipping of the Emerald Lotus’ helicopter disappear, replaced by the approach of the W.R.O. Vaguely, Yuffie thought she could hear Daisy calling for her, but she didn’t have the strength to respond.


	8. Disc One, Mission 7

Midgar Region: W.R.O. Hunter’s Lodge\  
Smoke lingered in the skies above the Lodge. Around the facility, W.R.O. personnel worked through the night to quench the flames and restore power. Wires had been cut and the facility left dark. The back-up generators didn’t even last through the night.  
Reeve took charge after the battle and organized the Hunters again. Extra soldiers were relocated and used to secure the facility. Yuffie was returned to the infirmary, where she was checked over thoroughly by an overworked medic, who gave her a rushed go ahead and went on to the next body.  
The materia left behind was moved to the Edge branch of the W.R.O. Reeve would follow it there a few hours later. All of the passcodes at the Lodge were changed in short order. The passcodes throughout the rest of the system were done the day before. Specialists were brought in to seek out any lingering threats.  
Yuffie spent her time in the mess, watching the city in the distance. The sky was bleak and grey, and by midday the smoke was finally starting to dissipate. She could still smell burning wood and hot steel, but the salty sea air was mixing slowly into it.  
She was leaning against the guard rail when a deep voice came from behind her. “How are you feeling?” Yuffie turned to find Reeve standing there, clutching two cups of black coffee. He offered her one, and she accepted it graciously and set it to the side with no intention of drinking it. “We didn’t get our chance to talk after that first attack.”  
“No, we didn’t.” She looked at him. “You’re still busy as ever. And tall, too. And is that grey in your beard?”  
Reeve laughed. “Yes, on all three accounts.” He blew on his coffee and then sipped it slowly. “How are your injuries?”  
“You kidding?” Yuffie punched the air. “I’m the Great Ninja Yuffie. Recovery is my middle name. So long as you spell my name with materia.”  
“Hmm. You always were full of energy.” Reeve rested the cup on the guard rail and rested his hands around it. He stared out at the barrens, toward Edge, and beyond it. “Two attacks in under a week. They’re becoming more aggressive.”  
“Yeah. Did you guys have any idea that this would happen?”  
“If I had, do you think I would have let it happen. It all makes sense in hindsight, however. Reed was insistent on keeping Hollis here. I should have noticed.”  
“Yeah, probably.” Yuffie nudged Reeve, who laughed quietly.  
“I wanted to warn you, Yuffie. It isn’t just Reed that was the problem. He had authority, but not enough to do this alone.”  
Yuffie remembered Oliver. Her levity died. She took a deep breath and grabbed the guard rail. “Yeah.”  
“We’ll be investigating everybody.”  
“Me?”  
Reeve laughed again and scratched his beard. She could see the bags under his eyes and the sleepless nights that caused them. Looking at him now, she could also see that he was losing weight. His cheekbones were more pronounced. “No, not you, at least not really. We’ll ask questions, but everyone knows where your loyalties lie.”  
“Thanks for that, I guess.”  
Reeve hummed and drummed his fingers against his cup. He took another sip. “They took some experimental materia, powerful things we found in some old Shinra facilities. Very dangerous, if it falls into the wrong hands.”  
“The Emerald Lotus is definitely the wrong hanss.” She pushed off the rail, stood with her hands on her hips. “When do I leave?”  
“Hm?” Reeve looked at her. “You don’t. I want you here, back on your original mission. With the Hunters down a director and a field agent, and the others here under scrutiny…”  
“Daisy is in no trouble, and she can do all the work alone. Seriously, I think sometimes I just get in her way.”  
“She’s better at hoarding materia than you are? I find that hard to believe.” He smiled his winning, politician’s smile, and it was hard for Yuffie to remember that it was fake.  
“Reeve, come on. I can be of better use to the W.R.O. than this, and you know it.”  
“We’ve already got someone on it, someone good.” She glared at him, and he sipped his coffee to keep from looking her in the eyes. “Look, I appreciate it, but what we need right now is stability. You’re good at your job, cleaned up Wutai in a matter of days. And Junon? I still brag to my friends about how I knew you way back when over that.”  
She added a frown to the mix. “You don’t have any friends.”  
“Now, Yuffie…”  
“No, I deserve better, and you know I do.”  
“You’re fine where you are.” She scoffed, and he said, “I mean, you are needed where you are. Please.”  
She sighed now. “Once, you trusted me with your most important missions. Remember Deep Ground?”  
“I still do, Yuffie. This is important.”  
“To you, but not to me.” She turned on heel and returned inside, leaving Reeve alone with both coffees.

-Disc One-

Yuffie wandered the halls in a huff. She found her way downstairs and gazed at the broken materia vault, now emptied of all of its contents. The materia was moved immediately, but it was futile. Everything worth taking was taken, and the W.R.O. had only leftovers and an empty vault. She stood in the center of it, hugging herself, staring at her loss.  
That was how Daisy found her, seated in the center, arms around her knees. She joined Yuffie there, and they were in silence for a few seconds before Daisy asked, “You okay?” Yuffie nodded and left it at that. “You know,” Daisy said while gazing around the room, “I don’t think I’ve ever been down here. From the very start, Reed and Oliver insisted on doing the cataloging. At the time, I always thought it was a relief.” She sighed. “I always hated the paperwork.”  
“We both did,” Yuffie said, sulking on her bent knees. “We were idiots.”  
“Can’t argue with you there.” Daisy gazed at the burns across the floor, the scratches made by the door as it was hurled across the room. They spread like flower petals from the doorway. Daisy traced them with her fingers. “Still, it’s hard to believe that they would betray us.”  
“Harder to believe that they could pull it off. No, actually, not hard to believe, just frustrating.” Yuffie glanced at Daisy. “You okay?”  
“I am,” Daisy sighed, “I am surviving it. I went for a walk. Oliver said—He told me I could use some fresh air. I was at the beach when I heard the explosions and made it back just in time to see you tumbling down.”  
“Oh.”  
“Did he say anything to you?”  
“No. The coward.”  
“He—He has his reasons. He must.”  
“Daisy, don’t waste your time on it, and don’t give him the credit.” Yuffie glared at the walls, at the empty shelves, at the fractured tiles of the floor. “We doesn’t deserve it.”  
“I guess not.”  
Yuffie looked at Daisy, who stared at the floor now, and she hugged her. They had worked together for years and, even with a blade sticking from her gut, Daisy has never looked so weak before. Yuffie rubbed her back. “Don’t listen to me. I mean, he was always fussing at us. Maybe, in a way, he was trying to warn us about what was coming.” Yuffie took a deep breath as they parted. “Maybe, I just need some of that fresh air you were talking about.”  
Daisy sniffled and nodded, and then she rubbed her eyes. When Yuffie stood, Daisy stayed, staring at the wall.  
On the way out, Yuffie pulled up her phone and called Shelke.

-Disc One-

When Shelke answered she told Yuffie where to meet her at the Lodge. Reeve flew her in to look over encrypted files found on Reed’s person after the battle was over. She was given use of Reed’s old office, which had been completely cleared out. Everything that he bad touched was taken for investigation.  
Shelke had her massive computer network set up. Monitors hung from the walls and lit the room with their blue-white glow. She sat in the center, eyes shining orange, her fingers doing an intricate dance across cyberspace. The room smelled faintly of hot steel and stale air.  
Yuffie was in there for a few minutes just watching her before Shelke even noticed. Even then, her acknowledgement meant a slight, somewhat disinterested nod, but it was enough. Yuffie paced the room and looked at the data scrolling rapidly across the screens. It moved too fast for her to read any of it. “So, Reeve brought you in?”  
“The Director asked me to analyze data drives found on Reed’s person, as well as his personal data drives and communications logs.”  
“Oh, come on. Reed was pretty dumb, but he wouldn’t just leave anything incriminating on him. It’s all got to be wiped, right?”  
“Yes, but anything deleted can be found and reconstructed if you know where to look. This is why Reed made efforts to hide the data drives on his person, because he knew about me.”  
“Too bad for him that he got caught.”  
“Yes,” Shelke said. She spoke with the same absence, as if she wasn’t in the room. From Yuffie’s understanding, the other woman probably wasn’t. With how her abilities worked, she was a million places at once. Her corporeal body didn’t matter; her reach was infinite. “I have files for you, if you would like them.”  
Yuffie stopped and stared at Shelke. “Reeve doesn’t want me on the case.” Hurt bled into her words, more hurt than she intended to show.  
“I know that,” Shelke said, and she looked Yuffie in the eyes. The glow of her eyes dimmed, and Yuffie could see their natural blue behind it. It was strange seeing her like that. She hadn’t grown an inch and never would. Forever, she would be an adult woman trapped in a child’s body, never aging, never changing. Shelke reached into her back pocket and produced a data drive, which she jammed into one of the many devices on her arms. Her eyes glowed. “I also know that you’re not one to listen.”  
“True but I’m not feeling so defiant anymore.” Yuffie sighed. “Maybe I’m getting older, or maybe it’s because its’s Reeve telling me to back down this time. I mean, he’s a smart guy and is running the entire W.R.O. If there’s anyone out there who knows better than me, it’s probably him.”  
“But that isn’t what you’re afraid of.”  
Yuffie’s knitted her brow. “Uh, huh?”  
“You are not afraid of disobeying but of what will happen after. You’re afraid that you will make it worse or, perhaps, that you may even find yourself questioning the W.R.O. and Reeve himself.”  
“Please.” Yuffie scoffed, shook her head. “Now, you’re just talking crazy. I wouldn’t find anything.”  
“There are black boxes that even I can’t get into,” Shelke said, and her eyes glowed like twin stars in the near-darkness of the room. She pulled the drive from her arm and held it out to Yuffie. “Even among the W.R.O. files.”  
Yuffie stared at the drive. “Shelke, I don’t know.”  
“Yuffie Kisaragi, you know very well what you want and what you are.” Shelke stared at Yuffie now and through her. Her face was expressionless, her tone was empty, but there was something in the glow of her eyes, something in the blue of them. Yuffie couldn’t quite place it, but she imagined it was something like hope. “You are the White Rose of Wutai, the Great Ninja, veteran of the Jenova War, and the Deep Ground Incident. You are Yuffie Kisaragi, for all the good and bad that entails.”  
“Veteran,” Yuffie repeated solemnly. “To be honest, that just makes me feel old and tired.” Even as she said it, she took the drive from Shelke. “What exactly is on this thing?”  
“Everything,” Shelke said. “And you have it first.”  
Yuffie grinned. “It’s always good to have a head start in a race.” She pocketed the drive. “I’ll look at it later, but I have to ask, Shelke, why are you helping me?”  
Shelke paused in speech only. Her hands moved as she thought, moving files, closing pages, opening new ones, altering her programs. She seemed hardly human. Even when she spoke, it was somewhat mechanical. “Yours is a unique perspective, and one worth supporting. You have been there from the beginning, starting with the field reports of Soldier First Class Zack Fair during his missions hunting rare materia at Shinra’s command, to the war with Shinra and then with Jenova after, through the battle with Bahamut Sin and the Remnants, and even during Deep Ground. You have saved the world countless times and always done your best. And you have saved your friends, as well.”  
Yuffie laughed, and she smiled proudly. “Well, I guess.” She stretched her arms over head. “And you know that off the top of your head?”  
“I know it all,” Shelke said. “I can access the electromagnetic field that surrounds the planet and, through it, interact with any computer within the network within an instant. Anything hidden from me is hidden for a reason.”  
“Ah, right, you’re omniscient. You would think I would remember that, considering how often it saves my rear.” Yuffie went to the door. “Reeve won’t be happy, you know.”  
“Irrelevant. You have been there from the beginning. It hardly seems appropriate to change that now.”  
Yuffie glanced over her shoulder, and she smiled. “You know, sometimes, you make no sense.” She plugged the drive into her bracer and pulled up a holographic interface on its surface to start sifting through the files. “But, who knows, maybe if I act quick enough, he won’t have time to get mad.”  
“That seems unlikely,” Shelke said.  
“Yeah,” Yuffie said, just before she stepped into the hall. She had the files up and was starting her search. “But, it’s worth a try.”

-Disc One-

Yuffie spent her time alone in the mess hall, looking through file after file. Reeve avoided her after their conversation. All of the W.R.O. workers at the base did, too, and, without them, there wasn’t much left of the Hunters to bother her. Only she and Daisy worked in the field and, with things as they were, Yuffie doubted more agents would be assigned to bolster their ranks.  
The files Shelke gave her were more than fragmented data. She had, to the best of her ability, reconstructed much of the corrupted files through use of her own information resources and sheer intellect. The picture it painted was not one of comfort. The Emerald Lotus was larger than anyone expected, and they were looking for more than simple materia. What they took, and what they left behind, was proof of that.  
Reed spent a lot of his time researching Midgar and had, apparently, pushed for Edge for years. There was something near thre the Lotus wanted, but they didn’t have the resources or the numbers at the time to get it. Their plan was to use the W.R.O., particularly the Hunters, to seek it out. That plan seemed to have changed once Yuffie got herself involved.  
Whatever they were looking for was underneath Midgar. This came as no great surprise to Yuffie, who knew from experience of Shinra’s deepest, darkest secrets. They buried many things beneath the city as they built it. She could only imagine the sort of dangers that still waited there, and she went to her locker to grab her things and prepare for the worst.  
That is when Daisy met her on the surface, on the burned and blackened landing strip outside of the base. For so long Yuffie had seen the Hunter’s Lodge as home base. She didn’t visit often, but it felt safe enough. The battle changed it for her, reminded her of her first reaction on the day of their arrival. It looked like a Shinra military base again, and she didn’t like how that left her feeling.  
Daisy was dressed in a jacket and jeans. She had a tie fastened around her neck underneath the jacket and a white shirt buttoned and tucked. Her pistols were hidden beneath the jacket. Her dark hair was up in a tight ponytail. They stared into each other’s eyes.  
“You look like you’re in better health.” Yuffie tried to smile but knew it didn’t fit. She didn’t feel like smiling after everything that happened. Like Daisy, she was fully dressed, wearing her bracer and having her shuriken strapped in. All of her materia was allocated appropriately. She had her phone fixed inside of the bracer and the holographic interface ready. “Reeve got big plans for you?”  
“He hasn’t talked to me yet.” Daisy flipped her hair and looked away. She and Yuffie stared out at the wasteland together. Everything between Midgar and the sea was dying. The air still smelled vaguely of smoke. “I’m feeling restless, though. It feels like I haven’t done anything lately.”  
“I know what you mean. Feels wrong waiting around in a bed while the world goes crazy around you.”  
“Exactly.” She looked at Yuffie again and crossed her arms over her chest. “I’ll be frank; you look like you have a lead.”  
“I have…something.”  
“Is it related to Oliver?”  
Yuffie went quiet but stared Daisy in the eyes. She couldn’t bring herself to speak. Reed was a jerk and he was on the wrong side, but that didn’t mean he was entirely wrong about her. She could still see Daisy with a blade sticking from her stomach. Yuffie took a deep breath. “Shelke found some files and pieced them together. They don’t tell me much, but they did give me a direction.”  
“And you’re going to follow it?” Yuffie nodded, and Daisy repeated the gesture. “I’m going, too.”  
“No, Daisy, just, no. You’re still injured, and Reeve doesn’t even want me involved. Don’t let me drag you down.”  
“You’re not,” Daisy said. “This isn’t about you at all. It’s about me, and it’s about the dangers that the Emerald Lotus pose to everyone.” She scratched her nose, and then her eyes hardened. “Besides, I have a few words for Oliver.”  
Yuffie watched Daisy stare ahead, firmly, resolved. It wasn’t anger that drove her, and it wasn’t thoughtless ambition. Daisy was certain, clear, and convicted. It showed in the set of her shoulders, in the steadiness of her gaze. Yuffie couldn’t drag her anywhere she didn’t want to go, and she also couldn’t keep her from following.  
Yuffie knew that sort of conviction, and she also knew better than to challenge it. She sighed. “We’re going to lose our jobs for this, you know?”  
“Maybe but we’re also going to save the world.”  
Yuffie grinned, and they locked hands. “You know, I’m always getting you into the best trouble,” she said, and more softly, “You’re with me?”  
“Until the end.”  
They squeezed each other’s hands and then burst into laughter. Yuffie lifted her left leg and rubbed her foot against the back of her right leg. “Okay, enough of that,” she said, thumbs hooked in her pants. She looked around the asphalt. “Your car still good? We need to head to Midgar ASAP if we want to get there before the others do.”


	9. Disc One, Mission 8

The Ruins of Midgar: Sector 7\

Daisy parked just outside of the Midgar. The ruins towered over them, twisted spires of steel rising and shining in the twilight. The glow of the sunset casted everything in gold. Here, the smell of wet stone and rusted steel permeated everything. It was better than the smoke, or at least Yuffie thought so.  
She took a moment to collect herself before checking her map. The files Shelke gave her had everything she needed and pointed to the Shinra HQ building, the ruins of which rested high on the upper plate. Daisy waited impatiently beside her, checking her guns to pass the time.  
“So, what exactly are we looking for,” Daisy asked after a prolonged silence. Usually, she was understanding to Yuffie’s motion-sickness, but the attack on the Lodge have left her anxious. When no answer came, she glared over the car at Yuffie. Yuffie!”  
“Sorry, sorry.” Yuffie held her stomach and regarded the map pulled up on her bracer again. “Honestly, I’m not sure. Shelke did her best with the information, but all I really got from it was that the Lotus would be looking for something here.”  
“And what is it they are looking for?”  
Yuffie lifted her bracer and pointed at a glowing green dot a good distance away from them. “A secret materia lab, probably filled with all sorts of experimental materia, just like what the Emerald Lotus would be looking for.”  
Daisy took a deep breath and holstered her pistol. “Okay, that’s better. Where is this lab?”  
“Beneath Shinra HQ, deep beneath. Deeper than Deepground.”  
“Great. And do those files tell us how to get there?”  
“No, but I know how,” Yuffie said, grinning. She closed the map and pulled a jacket from the passenger seat. After slipping it on, she led them into the ruins. Daisy followed shortly after, hugging herself for comfort.  
“This is my first time coming to Midgar, you know.”  
“Really?”  
“Really. I grew up on an entirely different continent, and when I was a girl, I used to dream of joining AVALANCHE.” They walked in silence. Collapsed stone pillar had fused together through impact to form a canopy above them. The sunlight peeks in through the cracks. “What about you, Yuffie? Do you have any dreams from when you were a kid?”  
Long ago, on a mountain overlooking Wutai, Yuffie made a promise. Actually, it was more a childish proclamation. Shinra had won the war with materia, so she would take their materia and win Wutai back. After everything that had happened since then, it felt like a lifetime ago.  
“Most of the files Shelke gave me were corrupted. Those that aren’t, are way above our paygrade, so I didn’t have the clearance to get them open, but we know one thing about them—Reed could get them open. That means that they’re related to materia somehow.”  
“Oh. I wonder why the Emerald Lotus is looking for materia. What they’re doing, it goes beyond simple smuggling or traditional materia abuses.”  
“Exactly, but if they’re seeking experimental materia, we know one thing. Whatever they’re looking for, it can’t be good.”

The Ruins of Midgar: The Sector 6 Slums\  
Sector six survived the battle of Midgar but only just. When the Sister Ray fired, the recoil shook the entire plate. Debris littered the ruins like little meteorites dropped from the heavens. Buildings were collapsed from the reverberations, landmark-memories of the catastrophe visited here.  
Residents of the slums mostly relocated to Edge. Some even managed to turn their lives around. They found purpose in the hard work required to build the city and, in the effort, were able to rebuild themselves. Those who lived on the plate relocated entirely, finding home in other cities before their money would mean nothing.  
Those that remained after meteor fall did not let themselves be known. They stuck to the shadows and lived a quiet, isolated existence. Some were former soldiers without a war to fight. Some were Shinra supporters too afraid to meet the public head-on. Yuffie and Daisy knew they were there, watching, but they saw no one on the empty streets.  
The ruins stank of old fumes and decay. They climbed a fallen beam and stared across the flattened streets and broken buildings. It was Yuffie’s first time in Sector Six, but she had an idea of where she was going. The map on her bracer also helped to keep her on track. She pulled it up and checked their position, and then she pointed ahead. “Over there.”  
Daisy wiped her brow. Though she was healthy, she was also fresh from the hospital. Her body was still adjusting to the hike. She straightened her jacket and tightened her ponytail. “There? What’s there?”  
Yuffie hopped from her perch and carefully descended the mountain of debris. Then, she made a swift approach into what was once the famously the Wall Market of Sector Six. Daisy trailed shortly after. She took in the collapsed stalls with mild disgust.  
“Really, what are we looking for here that will help us get up to Shinra?”  
Yuffie checked her map again and then took a left on a forked path. “How much do you know about the Wall Market, Daisy? More importantly, do you know WHY it was called the Wall Market?”  
“Because of the market?”  
“Because of the wall,” Yuffie said. She took a right and came to a stop before a solid expanse of steel and stone that towered still. It was covered in graffiti of all sorts, some works of art, some drunken declarations of love and loyalty. Yuffie put her hands on her hips and took it in. “Tifa told me that when Aerith was taken by Shinra, she and the others climbed up to the plate from here. She also said Barret used some weird metaphor, calling some piece of wire a…Golden rope of truth? Or hope? Anyway.” She grinned at Daisy. “It’s our way in.”  
“A wire,” Daisy said, staring at the wall and at the wreckage above it. She gulped. “And it goes all the way up?”  
“Yup.” Yuffie approached the wall and squinted. She thought she could see something in the dark. “It’s the easiest way up.”  
“No, it’s really not,” Daisy said. She tried to rub a smear of dirt from her jacket cuff. “Listen, there are tunnels, elevators.”  
“And you think those would be easier to climb?” Yuffie felt for the wire in the shadows. “There’s no power left here, Daze. Besides, all of the tunnels are collapsed or under W.R.O. watch.” Her fingers found something and seized it. She gave a firm tug and it held. “This really is the easiest way.”  
Daisy watched Yuffie plant one foot against the wall and start her climb, and she frowned. “Seriously? You really don’t expect me to believe that they snuck into Shinra HQ by climbing a cord that went all the way up to the surface.”  
“If it’s so hard to believe, then climb up and see for yourself,” Yuffie said.  
Daisy coiled the cord around her hand and started her climb. She stared at the wall as she hauled herself up and followed a long, winding crack with her eyes. It disappeared into the darkness, lost amidst graffiti and shadows. Above her, Yuffie shook the wire as she made her slow progress. From where Daisy was, the wall looked endless. The remains of the upper plate seemed impossible to reach.  
They hugged the cord tight as they shimmied along slowly. When they finally crested the wall, they saw the Midgar ruins extending out around them. There was nothing but ruin and wreckage all blurred into the darkness. From the center, the Shinra HQ building rose from the rubble, still standing despite the horrors visited upon it. A meteor couldn’t fell it, nor could the warfare that followed.  
The cord held, to the surprise of both women. Even at its thinnest, it did not snap. The longer she held onto it, the safer Yuffie felt. She couldn’t imagine power ran through it either and that only brought her deeper comfort.  
They passed the wall and left it behind, shimmying determinedly through sore arms and sore thighs. They found respite on a fractured girder at the top and sat at its center, legs dangling between the bars. Daisy sat on the right, her back rested against its crooked frame. It would lead them the rest of the way up, Yuffie remembered from the stories.  
The night was bleak and lifeless. There was no moon, just inky shadows and cold silence. Yuffie couldn’t see the stars above, but she could see fire pits below. It reminded her that not everyone left the ruins. The remnants survived, as they always do, and that night they glittered in the darkness.  
Daisy wiped her brow and hugged her jacket to her body. She stared out into the night, panting softly. “It’s weird to think, this used to be a city.”  
Yuffie nodded. “Biggest in the world.”  
“And now it’s,” Daisy frowned, “This.”  
Yuffie nodded again and lifted one leg. She hugged it and stared into the darkness. From where she sat, she could see it, a tiny white steeple with a hole in its roof. For a long time, it was considered a wreck. Now, it is the lone survivor. Yuffie pointed at it. “See that?”  
Daisy squinted. “The church?”  
“Yeah. I’m not sure, but I think that’s Aerith’s church.” Yuffie looked at the frayed ribbon tied around her right arm. “She was an old friend of mine. Of…ours, and she, uh, she died. Fighting Serphiroth.”  
“Oh.”  
“Anyway, she used to grow flowers in there, way back in the day.” Yuffie smiled and kicked her foot. “And flowers still grow there, without anyone watching, even after everything that’s happened. I like to think that’s how life is. You see all the destruction, all of the damage Shinra did, to the people, to the world, and it can be hard to remember that life keeps on going like nothing ever happened.”  
“Wow.” Daisy chuckled under her breath and stared at Yuffie. “That didn’t sound like you at all.”  
Yuffie stretched. “Yeah, I must be getting tired.” She stared up the broken ladder that would lead them to the plate, and she sighed. It disappeared in the night, but if she stared close enough, Yuffie could see stars between the cracks. “Still have a long way to go.”  
“Yeah.” Daisy stared up at the plate, too, and then pulled herself to standing. She was careful not to mind her footing. “But we’ll make it.”  
Yuffie pushed up and dusted the rust from her shorts. “Of course.”  
“Think they’ll be there?”  
“Who?”  
“You know.”  
“Oliver and them?”  
“Yes.” Daisy stared fixedly at the plate now. Her features were sharp in the darkness, as was her tone.  
“I don’t know. Maybe.” Yuffie shrugged. “What will you do if he is?”  
Daisy didn’t speak, but Yuffie could see the words written on her face. It was more than anger, even more than hurt. It was disappointment and broken trust.  
Yuffie stepped forward and grabbed at the rusting steel. The outer layer of it turned to flakes in her palms. She tested their strength before she started climbing. Daisy was shortly behind her. “You know,” she said, staring above and wincing whenever the steel turned to dust, “With Reed at least, I always knew he was bad.”  
Daisy groaned. “No, you didn’t.”  
“No, I did. Really. I mean, granted, okay, maybe I didn’t KNOW he was part of the Emerald Lotus. But, I knew I was going to kick his ass one day.”  
“Please. You just didn’t like him because he didn’t like you.”  
“Nah, it was more than that. He was faking from the start, and he was never a very good actor. He didn’t care enough about people to want to protect them from anything.”  
Daisy hummed. “I guess that’s true.” She pulled herself up steadily in Yuffie’s wake. “You know, sometimes it’s hard to remember that you used to do spy work for the W.R.O.”  
Yuffie grinned down at her. “Yup, I’m a veteran. Been there from the start.”  
“Feeling old yet?”  
“Not on your life, but I still wouldn’t mind putting all this Lotus crap into an unmarked grave. Irks me that they’re using Wutai like this.”  
“Using Wutai?”  
“Their name. The Emerald Lotus is a Wutai flower. In the old days, before my dad or even my dad’s dad, people used it as a sort of medicine and for ceremonies and stuff. And now they’re using it, its image, and its name. Just another bunch of jerks trying to destroy my homeland.”  
“Huh. Maybe they think of themselves as the cure.”  
“Sure.” Yuffie looked down and felt the world spin. She remembered the assault on Shinra HQ, the stale air feeling fresh against her face when she left the airship, and the uncomfortable buoyancy of the parachute. It was all a distant memory, but staring down at the ruins, it all came back. “I’m sure Shinra thought the same thing.”  
“You really think?”  
“Nah. Maybe in the beginning or something. They thought they were bringing people civilization, using Mako energy back before anyone knew what it was. I mean, it was like that when I was a kid. I used to think materia was the power of the gods, that if I just got enough, I could save Wutai.  
“And there were people in Wutai who wanted them there, who wanted civilization. They saw their weapons, saw their magic, and they wanted that. That’s the thing about people with a cause. You think you’re so right that you can’t do anything wrong, and you don’t even think about the people you step on to get there.”  
“I guess so.”  
Yuffie crested the girder and hopped from the tip to another series of wires. “And, uh, that was a close one. Cloud and those guys, they weren’t fighting for a cause, you know. They were fighting for people. Ideas, they’re not people. They don’t have feelings or anything. You focus so much on them, you forget what the important thing is. People can die, and it seems to me that no one is fighting for them a lot of the time.” She paused and met Daisy’s eyes. “That’s what I think, anyway. Now, come on, we’ve still got a ways to go.”

The Ruins of Midgar: Shinra HQ\  
A few hours pass and finally, after one last break, the duo reach the top of the plate. Yuffie pulled herself up and rolled onto her back to stare up at the starry sky, and she had to laugh. Though the city was in ruin, the skyline has never looked better. Years ago, as they approached in their helicopter, Yuffie was struck by how dark the sky was—a product of the light pollution, among other forms of pollution. Now, she could see each star clearly.  
Daisy came to rest beside her, sitting on her knees and panting. “That—was—quite—the—climb.”  
“Yeah.” Yuffie sat up and wiped sweat from her brow, but she kept smiling. She turned to regard Shirna HQ, which towered before them, derelict but standing. “And now we’re here.”  
They took in the HQ. Despite years of neglect, despite the many battles fought there, the assault of the Diamond Weapon, the duel between Cloud and Sephiroth, the war with Deepground and Rosso the Crimson’s death, it stood. Yuffie hated to admit it, but when Shinra did something, they did it well.  
She stood and dusted herself off. “Come on. No time to catch our breath. If we can trust Shelke’s information, then the Emerald Lotus is already here, and the W.R.O. won’t be far behind.”  
Daisy took a deep breath and stood beside her. Once more, she adjusted her jacket’s cuffs. “Alright. Then, where to?”  
Yuffie pulled up the map on her bracer. “We’ll want to reach the top floor.” She tapped the holographic interface and moved through the map, analyzing the different halls and stairs and seeking whatever hidden paths the W.R.O. may have already found. “A while back the W.R.O. found an elevator there and, surprise, surprise, Shinra was keeping even more secrets. Anyway, from what the records say, it was a materia lab, but the W.R.O. shut it down.”  
“And the Emerald Lotus think there might be something there.”  
“Exactly. Which means that’s where we’ll find them.”  
“So, how do we get there?”  
Yuffie chewed her bottom lip. “Well, the main elevator will be busted, which means we’ll have to use the stairs. Usually, that would mean key cards, but I doubt there’s any power left in the locks up there. So, we’ll start in the lobby and work our way up.”  
Daisy took another deep breath as she considered the trek before her. She put her hands on her hips, sighed. “Sounds good, I guess.”  
Yuffie laughed and nudged her. “Come on, it won’t be so bad. Though, we’ll want to keep our weapons handy. Shinra liked to let their experiments run loose around here. Last time we were here there were reports of biological weapons roaming the place.” Yuffie closed the maps and drew her shuriken. “Which, of course, we didn’t come and take care of.”  
“With no one living out here they probably didn’t see the point.”  
“Still.” They exchanged glances. “I think we could do them a favor and kill a few.”  
Daisy drew her guns and flipped their safety. “The things we do for work.”  
“Just imagine they’re Oliver’s smug little face.”  
“Done.”  
They enter the building and found it in disarray but not entirely in disrepair. The walls were surprisingly well-preserved, the windows smudged but enduring. A front desk wound around a central pillar with two large staircases leading up to the next floor, where elevators could take them higher. Paneled lights hung from the ceiling.  
Despite the dust and darkness, the room was largely undamaged. Even with the rubble lying around the entrance of the building, this room seemed almost entirely untouched, save for footprints in along the floor. They looked animal in nature, padded paw-prints of an unknown origin. Yuffie made note of them and moved forward.  
They followed a nearby map to the fire-exit, where they started the long climb upward. Unlike the main building, the stairwell was showing its age. The concrete was eroding slowly and much of the railing was altogether missing. There were a few places where they had to hop from stair to stair to make it higher. Yuffie did it with a smile. Daisy followed reluctantly.  
The higher they we, the more damage they found. On the way Yuffie found grappling hooks and ropes left by who she assumed to be Lotus soldiers. They were left recently, much more recently than the last W.R.O. excursion to the area. There were also footprints, scuff marks, and open doors. They were searching methodically.  
They moved farther up and found webbing. Some of it had been cut through already and moved in the breeze. What was left was thick, viscous, and pervasive. It was strung across nearly every wall. They found a body hanging in one particularly voluminous clump in a darkened corner. They wore a green uniform that had been torn open across the front. Blood beaded along the silk.  
Yuffie and Daisy shared a grimace and moved on.  
The farther they went, the more bodies they found. Most were suspended in the air by a liberal amount of webbing. Some were torn limb-from-limb and partially eaten. Often times, their weapons were found nearby, held in place by the webbing as if frozen in time. The smell of blood permeated the stairwell.  
Yuffie covered her nose and kicked one of the soldiers. They didn’t move. “Looks like we’re on the right track.” She glanced back at Daisy. “Maybe we shouldn’t even be here. Seems like the monsters are cleaning up just fine.”  
Daisy frowned at the idea.  
“Anyway, let’s keep going.”  
They took a step forward, and then Daisy yanked them back. Webbing surged from the shadows and spread across the Lotus corpse nearby. As they fell backward, Daisy grabbed hold of the railing and drew her pistol. The steel railing twisted and gave, and she fell backward, being caught by Yuffie, who had rolled to a stop just before tumbling over the edge of stairwell.  
A creature stood suspended in the webbing above them. It was enormous, with eight furry legs and a growth protruding from its abdomen. Its upper torso was that of a wolf, with a canine snout. Its lips were curled back in a snarl, its eyes a snowy white.  
“Yuffie, what is that?”  
“Whatever it is, it’s making its home here.”  
The creature twisted and turned. Its abdomen flexed and webbing rushed forth. Yuffie shoved Daisy forward and took the webbing to the torso. The blow was enough to knock the air from her. She fell backward and then hung, body wrapped in a thick blanket of fine, viscous fibers. She cursed and swayed, staring at the darkness below.  
“Crap! Daisy, it got me! I’m stuck.”  
“I’ve got it,” Daisy said, and she lifted herself and looked up. The creature was gone now, lost in the shadows. She tried to stand but couldn’t move her ankle. Her left foot was taped to the floor by thick webbing. It was her turn to curse. “It got me, too, Yuffie, and now it’s disappeared. You see it?”  
Yuffie frowned and swayed. “No! I can’t see anything.”  
“Well—Wait!” Daisy rolled to one side and fired up into the darkness, where she thought the creature may be crouching. A screech followed in the wake of the gunfire and blood spread across the webbing. The creature fell from the ceiling, landing on all eight legs and lunging forward at her, fangs bared and gleaming.  
Daisy pressed firmly against the wall and fired twice. It took two bullets to the chest and fell back into the railing, which gave under its weight. The stone beneath it shifted and fractured. Its legs scrambled and seized at the floor and when that wasn’t enough, it leapt from the stonework to the webbing across the way.  
“Daisy? Daisy, what’s going on? What are you doing up there? Did you get it?”  
“Shut up.”  
“What?”  
“Shut up!”  
“Oh.”  
Daisy followed the creature’s crawl up. She aimed her weapon and rolled onto her back, her ankle twisting at an odd angle to accommodate her position. Then, she pulled the trigger once, twice, three times. She heard a screech and then watched its descent down the stairwell. Silence followed.  
“Looks like you got it,” Yuffie said as she continued to sway. She heard it land far below.  
Daisy took a deep breath. “Looks like.” She looked down at the webbing on her feet. “Now to figure out how to get out of this.”  
“I think I’ve got it.” Yuffie wriggled and flexed her hand. She managed to touch her shuriken briefly and closed her eyes. A small flame spread across her torso and parted the web’s fibers. She nearly fell but caught herself on the very edge of the stairs and pulled herself up. Then, she held the materia in hand and glanced at Daisy. “Close your eyes. And don’t move. I don’t want to take your foot.”  
Daisy swallowed and winced. She felt a flash of heat and could see the light through her closed eyelids. Then, her foot was free. When she opened her eyes, she found a small amount of webbing still there, crusted to her sock. She flexed her ankle before standing and then regarded the Lotus corpses. “Well, now we at least know what got them.”  
Yuffie nodded. “And we got it.”  
“There may be more, though. So, guards up.”  
“Let’s hope there’s more. More of those means less of the Lotus.”  
Daisy sighed. “I think I’d prefer the Lotus.”  
Yuffie checked her map and nodded. “Well, we’re getting close. Come on.”


	10. Disc One, Mission 9

The Ruins of Midgar: Shinra HQ Top Floor\  
Daisy stared out the fractured window. From where they were, she could see the stars clearly. The dirty remains of the plate gleamed in the night. Far below, she knew there were people gathered around fires, hunched in the cold, wrapped in dirty rags. From the top floor of Shinra’s HQ, however, she couldn’t’ see them. Suddenly, it made sense to her how people at the top can be so callous.  
She turned and regarded the office. They found it thick with webbing, and Yuffie used her materia to burn it away. Then, she cleared a spot on the floor and started fiddling with the files on her bracer’s holographic interface.   
“Find it yet?”  
“I’m looking,” Yuffie said. “I’m trying to find some older blueprints, maybe see if I can figure out where the hidden door might be.”  
“How hard can it be? Find a hollow wall or something.”  
Yuffie frowned at her. “You’ve obviously never infiltrated a place before,” she said while sifting through more files. “Most walls have wiring behind them, especially in a place like this. It isn’t about hollow walls. It’s about looking for something that doesn’t belong.”  
“What doesn’t belong, huh?” Daisy folded her arms in front of her and approached the wall. The paint was chipped, the wall fractured. An old bookcase was folded in, the glass desk melted and warped. She walked a small circle and then came to a stop. The webbing had been burned away and soot was gathered on the walls. From where she stood, she could see a small gash in the wall.  
Her brow knitted, and she leaned forward, and she listened. Beyond the wall, she could hear voices, indistinct whispers that were, undoubtedly, human. She stood straight and readied both pistols, and she whispered Yuffie’s name once, twice, three times before getting her attention.  
Yuffie looked up. “What?”  
Daisy nodded at the wall.   
“The wall?” Yuffie frowned, then went wide-eyed. “Oh, the wall!” She closed the files on her bracer and stood. Reaching back, she readied her shuriken. “And we’ve got company?”  
Daisy nodded.  
Yuffie smiled. “Then, let’s go introduce ourselves. You first.”  
A nod, and Daisy leaned into the wall, throwing it open. There were four Lotus soldiers, standing huddled in a narrow hallway thick with dust. At the very end was the rounded shaft of the elevator, the doors worked open. The four soldiers reacted immediately when they see them.  
All four wore masks and the green military uniforms of their organization. There were two men in the fore, ready and waiting, one being tall and wiry and the other stout around the midsection. Behind them were two women, one small but toned and the other being a big woman with strong shoulders.  
Daisy kneeled and readied her pistols while Yuffie stepped in and hurled her shuriken. It spun through the air and landed between them. A wall of ice swelled around them, spreading from the shuriken and pinning two, small-but-toned and stout-around-the-midsection, to the walls.  
“Your turn,” Yuffie shouted, and Daisy took two shots. The gunshots echoed down the hallway, but the bullets came into contact with a blue flash and a hexagonal barrier that formed from the air. Materia glowed brilliantly in the darkness from armbands they wore.  
Shoulders drew two daggers and ran along the wall, twirling through the air as she came to landing. She attacked from the side, stabbing at Daisy’s torso but being met by Yuffie instead. Yuffie caught the woman by the arms and fell back, tossing her into the office. Shoulders hit the ground hard and lost hold of her daggers as she slid across the glossy floor.  
Tall-and-wiry staggered forward and swung down at Yuffie, who met his fist with her arm guard and then knocked him away. She planted a kick to his gut and then another to his chest. He stumbled back, and she leapt up, pushing off the wall and driving both feet into his chest again. He fell backward into the ice and then slumped to the ground.  
Flipping overhead, Yuffie yanked her shuriken from the floor and the ice disintegrated into slush. The Lotus soldiers fell free. Tiny-but-toned grabbed hold of the shuriken and pulled Yuffie down into a kick. Her knee met Yuffie’s gut and sent both women into the slurry. Beside them, thick-about-the-midsection drew a gun but had it shot from his hands by Daisy, who was then grabbed from behind.  
Yuffie coughed and pushed herself up. Tiny closed distance, using a series of swift jabs to drive Yuffie to the wall. Pinned, Yuffie tightened her posture, pulled her arms close to her torso and darted around the quick strikes. When she saw an opening, she punched Tiny in the solar plexus repeatedly and then elbowed her in the face. Then, seizing the small woman by the shoulders, Yuffie flipped over her head and used her momentum to toss the other woman into the wall.  
Daisy choked and clawed at shoulder’s arms. She coughed and watched as Yuffie ducked under a punch from thick and grabbed her shuriken. Without even a glance, she spun about and drove the shuriken deep into the steel panels of the wall, wedging it in around his neck and holding him in place. Then, she tossed a shining green stone that flashed with light as it approached.  
A roar of fire sounded from the entrance. Daisy put her head down and closed her eyes. The woman behind her was blown forward, uniform smoking. The smell of burnt flesh filled the room. Before shoulders could recover, Daisy was on her, striking her repeatedly in the face with her pistol butt. She kept swinging until the woman stopped but took care not to kill her.  
After, Daisy and Yuffie stood together. They were mostly unharmed, though Yuffie was holding her side. “You okay,” she asked, and Daisy nodded, so Yuffie turned to the thick, who was trying to pry the shuriken from the wall. He stopped when he saw Yuffie staring. She put her hands on the shuriken and kneed him in the crotch, then she pulled it from the wall and let him crumple to the floor.  
Daisy picked up her pistols and held them at the ready as she approached. Yuffie stood over thick, foot pinning his head to the ground, and rested her weapon perched on her shoulder. “Okay, let’s do this fast: there’s more than you four here. Talk.”  
“Greene,” he coughed.  
Yuffie smirked and glanced at Daisy. “And here I thought all the Lotus folks were too stupid to do this easy.” She tapped his chin with her shuriken and pulled his mask off. He was crying on the floor. “It’s okay, sweetheart. You’re okay, so long as you give us more.”  
“He was a doctor, worked for Shinra, works for us now. He’s crazy but smart.”  
“Sounds like Shinra’s M.O.,” Yuffie said. “And how many does he have with him?”  
“Twenty more.”  
“Soldiers?”  
“All of them,” he said. “When you join Lotus, you get trained. We’re all soldiers,” and with a hint of pride she added, “We’re fighters.”  
Yuffie looked around the hall, at his three friends. “Not very good ones.”  
He gritted his teeth, his rage getting the better of his fear, and started shouting. “The W.R.O. will fall, and we will be free to live as we like. No more corporations to run us, no more governments to collar…” He went quiet when Yuffie kicked him across the face. His nose was bloodied, but he was breathing  
Daisy stared at Yuffie, who blinked in response and asked, “What?”  
Daisy shrugged and safetied her pistols before holstering them. She tiptoed over the water on the floor and the bodies around it to stared down the elevator shaft. “I think there’s power,” she said, and she looked back at Yuffie, who followed. “What’re the chances we can take this done.”  
“They took it down it looks like,” Yuffie said. She fastened her shuriken to her back and then felt along the darkened elevator interior. When she found the cords leading down, she took hold of them. “We won’t be using it, though.”  
Daisy frowned. “And why not?”  
“Can’t let them know we’re coming.”   
“More climbing?”  
“More climbing.” She met Daisy’s frown head-on. “Look at it this way, we won’t have to hit the gym for a week.”  
“Fine, fine!” Daisy smacked herself in the cheeks and took a deep breath. In front of her, Yuffie stepped away from the floor and hung in the center of the shaft. Daisy adjusted her ponytail again. “How is it holding?”  
“Good,” Yuffie said, and she started shimmying down. Above her, Daisy followed.  
“I’m really, really starting to regret my decision to come along with you.”  
“Aw, don’t be like that,” Yuffie said as they descended into the darkness. “Someday, we’ll laugh about all of this.”  
Daisy groaned. “That’s assuming we survive.”


	11. Disc One, Mission 10

The Ruins of Midgar: Below Shinra HQ\  
Yuffie swayed and landed quietly, her footfalls silent from years of training. Rising, she pinned herself to the wall and moved along its edges while Daisy came to a heavier landing beside her. She switched the bracer-flashlight on, searching the area briefly, memorizing everything she saw before Daisy’s eyes had time to adjust. Then, it was off.  
“Where are we,” Daisy asked while rubbing the ache from her arms.  
“The bottom,” Yuffie said, kneeling at the center of the elevator they stood on and flipping the hatch open.   
“And is this all it is?”  
Yufife stopped and looked up at Daisy. She had her arms planted around the edges of the hatch and was just bout to lower herself in. “Is this all what is?”  
“Adventures,” Daisy said. “Are they just endless climbs.”  
“Mostly,” Yuffie said. “And walking. So much walking.” She smiled. “And somewhere in between, you manage to save the world. Not at all like the movies make it, huh?”  
Daisy just sighed.  
“Okay, now quiet. Time for game faces.” Yuffie lowered herself into the elevator and landed lithely, going to the wall again. This time, she drew her shuriken as they moved. Daisy followed her in, nearly falling forward as she landed but being caught by Yuffie instead. They took position beside the elevator doors, which were already worked open and partially folded inward.  
Yuffie peeked around the corner and into the room. It was larger than she expected, two-story, with catwalks lining the walls and one bridging the walls into the center. Expensive machinery lined the first-story walls. Tables filled the interior, with a few more large, dusty machines spaced evenly across the floor.   
Lotus soldiers worked tirelessly. One walked the catwalks above while others scurried about the floor. They had a vault on the left wall opened, a halo of soot showing where the explosives went off, and they were removing crate after crate of materia. They took the crates to the tables in the center of the floor, where some of the soldiers were pulling each piece out, one by one, and making notes on nearby clipboards.  
Across the room, the wall was open. An enormous, two-panel door had been pulled apart. Yuffie could hardly see the tunnel beyond thedoors in the darkness, but she could make out a small tram car which waited there, presumably to haul their take away when they were done with the busy work.  
She kneeled back in the elevator with her back against the wall and pulled up the holographic interface on her bracer. The signal was dead, which meant they were alone in enemy territory, surrounded on all sides by Lotus soldiers. A cold sensation crept down her spine and settled in her gut. For a moment, Yuffie thought it was fear, and then she thought it away entirely.  
She put on a weak smile.  
Daisy waited beside her, weapons drawn, safety off. Yuffie gestured for her to wait and watch. Daisy nodded in return and peeked out of the elevator doors.  
Sitting straight, Yuffie took a deep but quiet breath, and then ducked out into the facility. She stopped beside one of the large machines and hid with her back to it. The steel was old and cool to the touch. She peeked over it, noting the movements of the sentries and the workers, and then moved on. She wound a slow circle around the facility, stopping periodically to peek at the guards and adjust her course.  
As she approached the center, she kept a close watch on the guard on the catwalks. If she were going to be caught, it would be by him. Back to a machine, she peeked around the corner and caught sight of a middle-aged man with greying dark hair and a lined face. He moved with a hunch and had glasses perched low on his long nose. His voice was high and rough, and his manner manic but disinterested. He spoke with a woman who was standing inside of the vault. Her voice was deep and serious.  
“Doctor, we didn’t come here to find your pet project.” He tone was calm on the surface but edged with malice. Yuffie could tell from the way the woman spoke, she did not like the doctor.  
The doctor cackled. “Perhaps, but we get what we get, darling. Beside, I’m sure your Lotus won’t be so upset to have more powerful materia within their grasp.”  
“He isn’t looking for more materia, only a specific materia.”  
“Yes, yes,” the man said absently. He stepped into the vault and Yuffie could hear something click. There was a mechanical whine as a machine struggled to life. “But you can’t outfit an army with only a single materia.”  
“If we get what we’re looking for, we won’t need an army.” The woman moved. Her footfalls were heavy and her gait wide. Yuffie imagined her, tall and stocky, in her mind. “Enough games. Is it here?”  
“Who knows. If not, then we will find it elsewhere. There are files, dear, and they’re still here, I am sure.”  
The woman took a deep breath. “You made us certain promises.”  
“The day hasn’t ended, dear.”  
“Don’t call me dear.”  
The doctor laughed again, this time more quietly. “You just leave me to my job, to the materia.” He stepped out of the vault. His hands were inside of his pockets now. The doctor was the only one who didn’t wear a Lotus uniform. He had on slacks and a yellow-turtle neck sweater. “And you take care of your own job. We have company.”  
Yuffie went stiff, she held her breath and ducked around the machine, her back pressed hard against the cold steel behind her. The woman followed the doctor out of the fault. She had drawn a weapon. “Where?”  
“And here I thought you SOLDIERS were the elite. Veterans.” He chuckled again. “The elevator, dear.”  
Yuffie cursed to herself and listened as the woman called over one of the lotuses and whispered an order into his ear. Then, she heard a blade being drawn, a large, sharp one, and didn’t wait any longer. Standing, she hurled her shuriken overhead, aiming for where she estimated the woman to be and rolled to take cover behind another machine.  
A flash of fire was followed by a cloud of dark smoke. Flames surged across the floor, between the machinery, the heat of it forcing the steel to glow and bend. Yuffie conjured a materia shell from her bracer to hold the flames at bay and waited for the flames to recede before lowering her arm. The Lotus scrambled around her.  
“She’s here,” the woman shouted, and gunfire echoed across the room. Yuffie moved around the other side of the machine again, to flank her enemy, and she finally caught sight of the woman. She was tall, with glowing green eyes and curly blonde hair. Yuffie recognized her from the rally. She was the woman who stabbed Daisy through the stomach.  
More gunfire, this time from Daisy, who kept the Lotus at bay with well-placed shots. The female SOLDIER took the doctor by the sweater and dragged him away, tipping a desk and dropping him behind it. She shouted orders from her crouched position, ordering the Lotus soldiers above to cover their retreat. A particularly stout male Lotus on the floor approached her to receive direct orders from her.  
“We’ve been compromised,” the SOLDIER said, and she glanced at Yuffie, who was handling a few ground soldiers while they spoke. “If she’s here, then the W.R.O. won’t be far behind. I’ll take the doctor and what materia we have and return. You clean up and grab whatever you can before following after.”  
The Lotus nodded and turned to three others who were awaiting his command. Yuffie was gone. She had handled the two Lotus who got to her and knocked them unconscious, and she returned to moving along the walls, out of sight of those above. She meant to cut off the SOLDIER’s retreat but didn’t move fast enough. A sniper shot from the catwalk hit with enough force to knock her back even as the barrier stopped it.  
Daisy shot the sniper from below, and Yuffie made another effort to intercept the SOLDIER and the doctor as they made their way across the room. This time, a Lotus soldier stepped in front of her. She was a skinny thing carrying a big, dark automatic rifle, and she unloaded on Yuffie, who lifted her bracer and charged through the gunfire. Yuffie leapt into the woman, feet-first.  
The woman fell back and rolled into a nearby materia canister, knocking materia across the floor. Yuffie landed on her back and kicked up, planting both feet firmly on the steel and preparing her second assault. The Lotus met her again, this time with a baton in hand. It sparked whenever she pressed a button on the grip.  
The woman lunged and Yuffie pivoted. She pushed away the woman’s arm and struck her in the face, cracking the ceramic of her mask. The woman staggered back, and Yuffie rolled over a nearby table, meeting the woman on the other side with her foot. The woman stumbled forward and caught herself on one of the machines.  
From her periphery, Yuffie noticed another Lotus approaching from behind her. He had a gun in one hand, pointed at the floor, and a dagger up in the other. The woman in front of her lunged again, aiming for Yuffie’s stomach. Yuffie twirled around and threw the woman into the second Lotus. The baton touched his chest and sent him rigid as electricity crawled through his form.  
The woman turned as Yuffie leaped off of a nearby machine. They met, knee-to-face, and the woman’s mask shattered into pieces as she fell backward into another machine and slumped onto the ground. The male Lotus fell beside her, gun discarded and knife clattering against the steel panel flooring.  
Another Lotus opened fired as Yuffie landed. She lifted her barrier and caught the bullets before ducking behind a machine. More gunfire and Yuffie hardly had time to react as bullets gathered around the floor. She grabbed materia from the floor and focused her energies and ice formed around the Lotus’ gun.  
He discarded it and charged forward, reaching for the knife on the ground. Yuffie met him part way, planting a kick to his chest and then again in his stomach. As he staggered back, she conjured ice around him in a solid block that swallowed his body up to the neck. His arms dangled from the sides.  
Another Lotus was taken down by precision shooting from the elevator, and Yuffie smiled and dropped the materia she held. She turned and found the large Lotus from before making his charge. He swung over head with both hands, and she caught it with her bracer and her legs gave out. Daisy fired, but he took Yuffie by the arm and lifted her barrier to block the bullets.  
They danced together, spinning as they fought for control. Yuffie tried to rip her arm free, to counter his movements. She wove their legs together, struggled to get a firm grip on his neck or shoulders, to angle his body in a way that gave her leverage or exposed him to Daisy’s keen eye.  
He lifted her and slammed her down on the table. Air rushed from her lungs and left her coughing as he kept a firm grip on her. She parted her legs, clamped them around his head and rolled, bringing him face-first into the table. His head bounced off and mask fractured, revealing one eye underneath.  
The grip he had on her loosened, and she stumbled back while she fell from the table and caught herself on the floor. She scrambled away before his head cleared and took refuge out of sight of him, taking time to catch her breath while gunfire echoed around her.  
She peeked around the left of corner of the machine where she hid, where she left him, but saw nothing. To the right she found him searching for her. She pressed one hand to her side, where her body ached, and the cure materia in her bracer flared to life before she stood to charge him.  
They met, and she made a series of swift, precise strikes at his chest and face. He dodged them, ducking and swaying with her movements before stepping in for his own attack. Yuffie bent backward under it and then seized him by the arm. Pushing off of the machine beside them, she used the momentum to carry her up and bring her knee up into his face. He stumbled back but held his footing.  
She wiped sweat from her brow and smiled. “You’re pretty good,” she said, and the Lotus smiled as another chunk of mask fell from his face. He lifted a device and clicked the tip of it, and she felt the draw of her materia slowly fade away. The faint glow of her barrier faded with it. She glanced at her armguard. “A jammer?”  
He nodded and dropped it beside him before drawing two large, curved knives and twirling them in hand. He held them backhand and sunk into a low stance. Yuffie frowned and unfastened her guard, leaving it on the floor and stretching her arm while hopping in place. She felt winded, but she could fight.  
“Just so you can’t say I tricked you afterward, you know who I am, right?”  
“Yuffie Kisaragi, of Wutai.”  
She smiled. “That’s the Great Ninja Yuffie, the White Rose of Wutai, actually.”  
“Won’t be white for long,” the man said. His knives gleamed.  
“Clever.”  
The Lotus grunted and lunged forward, and Yuffie ducked under the charge. They met, him stabbing down at her and missing entirely as she rolled away. His knife hit the steel flooring and left a thin scrape across its surface. He turned to stab again, but she caught him by the back and drove her knee into his gut. It knocked him to his side, but he barely seemed to feel the blow as he rolled back to his feet.  
She kept attacking, using her speed to her advantage. Most swings landed, but he kept his arms up to soak the blows. He fought carefully, conserving energy and taking quick, powerful strikes, holding his blades to in a way that left shallow gashes along the machines that flanked them.  
Yuffie avoided severe injuries by staying mobile. Her barrier had left her drained to start and the use of the ice and cure materias found her fatigued. Her knees buckled when they should have held, and she could feel her reaction slowing. A few sweeps of his blades left thin gashes along her arms and shoulders. One caught her in the cheek just before she could retreat.  
He caught her with a punch to the gut, the base of his knife knocking the air from her, and then jabbed down at her with the other blade. Yuffie shuffled away, falling into a nearby table and rolling across its surface. Materia spilled off around her, and she caught one as it fell and tried to cast as she stood but nothing happened. The materia was inert in her palm, its light stolen by the nearby jammer. So, she threw it at his chest and watched it fall harmlessly to the floor.  
He grinned bloodily. “Looks like the legend ends today,” he said, sauntering forward and twirling his blades. She could see blood on their polished surface, her blood.  
A bullet ricocheted nearby and drew the Lotus’ attention. He ducked down and looked over his shoulder to find Daisy charging, guns up and cursing as she continued pulling the trigger. Bullets bounced off around him harmlessly as he kept low, with his back to the steel machines. He peeked around once to gauge her movement and then rose to hurl one dagger at her.  
The dagger spiraled through the air and caught Daisy in the shoulder. She fell to the ground, holding the blade and cursing as blood gushed from the wound. Both of her guns fell to the ground beside her, one empty and the other with its clip out as she was reloading.  
Yuffie took the opportunity to attack from behind. She leaped onto him, pummeling him in the back of the head until he reached up and pulled her back down. The machine caught her fall, and she bent over it, her spine straining. Lifting her, he tossed her again, into the nearby table, which skidded backward and toppled as she fell onto the ground, groaning.  
He stood over her then, one big booted foot resting on her chest. The world kept spinning as a deep ache spread through her. She strained to focus on him, and he tapped her chin with his boot before pinning her face to the floor. From his holster he pulled out a pistol and cocked it. The mechanical sound focused her some, but she could only barely see him past his boot.  
“You know,” he said, chuckling as he pointed the gun at her head. He moved his foot down to her chest so she could turn to face him. “For all your boasting, I thought you would be better. But, I guess even heroes have to die someday.”  
“Not the good ones,” she rasped, grabbing him by the ankle. He smiled as she coughed up the blood pooling in her throat and closed her eyes. It hurt, all of it hurt, her body and her pride. She could taste the blood, feeling it congealing on her chin and lips, feel the swelling aches in her back and the broken bones.  
Then there was a pulse. In the very core of her a light flashed into a spark of adrenaline and then something more. She was desperate and tired, and she had no one to save her, so she would have to save herself. It was hard for her to admit, but she was at her limit, and she had to break past it.  
With the last of her energy, she pushed his leg to the side and rose from the ground. Something greater than herself filled her with endless force, endless energy, and she put all of it into one final, wild swing. Her first coalesced with a shining blue light and caught him across the face and a gust of wind exploded around them, toppling tables and folding the steel panels of the machines around them in.  
Light and fire followed as he flew across the room, landing in a materia ben and knocking it backward underneath him. It went skidding across the floor as he rolled to a stop against the far wall, materia scattered around him.  
Yuffie took a deep breath and folded, falling to her knees, and she panted for air. On her hands and knees, she crawled through the debris to find the jammer and turn it off. She dropped it into her pocket before returning for her guard and grabbing the cure materia from it. On the way to Daisy, she mended her own wounds as best she could before helping to remove the dagger from her partner’s arm and healing her after.  
“I’m sorry,” Daisy said as she held her arm just below the gash. She watched the skin folding shut beneath the blood. The wound itched as it wove back together.  
Yuffie smiled weakly. “Don’t be sorry. You took out an entire army on your own.” The materia stopped glowing, and Yuffie kneeled down beside her, exhausted and pale. “Still,” she sighed, “I could have done without you missing that last shot.”  
“I crumbled under the pressure,” Daisy said, and they both laughed. She felt light-headed, and her shoulder was still bruised, but she could move. She reached for her guns and finished reloading them. “Are you okay?”  
“Please.” Yuffie wiped sweat from her forehead and blood from her lips. “I’ve faced worse than the big guy.” She pushed herself to standing after a few more deep breaths. “No time to lick our wounds, though. We’ve got a tram to catch.”  
Daisy nodded and slipped the clip into one of her guns with a definitive click. Then, she holstered both weapons before rising with Yuffie. “Then lead the way.”  
Yuffie nodded and went to gather her shuriken before they left.

-Disc One-

They followed the tram tunnels to an exit and could smell the sea in the distance before they saw it. The tunnels were dark, and this darkness, combined with their fatigue, made the journey feel endless. When they saw a light at the end, they ran forward to find the mountain ridges rising behind them, dark grey and stabbing the sky. There was a beach to their right, pale sand being swallowed regularly by the shifting tides.  
Daisy paced the beach, kicking the sand, while Yuffie walked the high grasses nearby. The stalks were flattened across a wide area and bent outward from a gust of wind. An airship had landed there. Grooves were worked into the soft dirt where it had touched ground.  
Yuffie joined Daisy at the beach. They sat together, staring into the grey horizon. A pink blush was forming at the rim of the sky. The sun would be rising soon, and night was finally coming to an end. They breathed and felt very tired suddenly. All of the damage they accumulated came to life, and they really just wanted to rest.  
Daisy leaned into Yuffie and put her arms around her. She held her close. “You okay?” Yuffie frowned, and Daisy shook her gently and squeezed her at the shoulder. “Listen, this isn’t over. We’ll get them later.” She ruffled Yuffie’s hair and sat up straight. “You’ll see. We won’t stop, and they can’t hide forever.”  
The wind was cold but growing warmer. The air smelled strongly of salt and wet. They stayed there as the first rays of sunlight spread across the water. Yuffie laid back, head in her hands, and she stared up at the sky, shivering as the cool air danced across her bare midriff. Daisy stood and stretched and rubbed her arms for warmth.  
“Come on.” She offered Yuffie her hand. “We should go back and look around, see if we can find anything before the W.R.O. guys figure out where we went.”  
Yuffie opened her eyes. She stared up Daisy’s arm, up into her dark eyes. Both looked tired and beaten up, but Daisy had something that Yuffie was lacking. There was vitality still there. Yuffie kept replaying their failed battles in her head. Even fighting that single soldier had been a challenge. She wondered how many times the others saved her over the years, and then pushed those thoughts away so she could force herself to take Daisy’s hand.  
The walk back was long and quiet. Neither was moving quickly and neither had the energy to care. The soldiers were still unconscious. Daisy set out to tying them and marking them for W.R.O. pick up, sending coordinates to Shelke while Yuffie searched the vaults and the files stored inside. The facility still had power even after years of neglect.  
She found files and downloaded them to her personal database and then left through the tram tunnels. It was a long walk back to Midgar, but Yuffie was happy for the exercise. She needed to stretch the sores out of her and work out the nervous energy left over from the battle before she went to rest. It also gave her time to look through the files.  
As they passed through the ruins toward Daisy’s car, they caught sight of a W.R.O. airship drifting overhead. They would be arriving soon and start their search, and Yuffie wanted to make it back to Edge and get a few hours of rest before they came calling on her.


	12. Disc One, Mission 11

Edge: Seventh Heaven Bar\  
Daisy dropped Yuffie off at the bar before returning to the Lodge to rest. Yuffie offered to let her stay but didn’t have the heart to argue when refused. Instead, Yuffie shuffled inside as the sun climbed slowly over the buildings and glittered against the windows. Marlene and Denzel were just waking as she entered and offered sleepy greetings that she didn’t remember returning.  
Yuffie slept deeply, forgetting for a time the aches and the bruises, both physical and emotional. Her dreams were peaceful and faraway, memories dragged up in the wake of her battles. She didn’t remember them clearly when she woke up, just lilies floating on the water and Wutai seen from a mountain top. The sun was golden, and she had prayed to Leviathan before leaving home for good.  
Her phone work her when she saw that man again. He was wearing a mask this time, but his eyes were dark like hers. They were Wutai.  
“Hello?”  
“Yuffie Kisaragi.”  
Yuffie felt her face to make sure it was there and found it hurt to move her arms. She groaned slowly as everything else began to hurt again, too. “What?”  
“How are you?”  
“Sore and sleepy.” She sat up, slowly, whining with each movement. It wasn’t just pain anymore. Her muscles felt dead. She was sleeping so well and needed a bit more of it. The world was blurry when she opened her eyes and a bit too bright. She felt sick and had to take a few minutes to breathe through the nausea. “Why are you calling?”  
“Ms. Daisy Gould returned without you. I was just making sure you were well.”  
“Well enough,” Yuffie said. She stretched her feet and toes and listened as they popped. A breath, and it didn’t hurt so much to breathe anymore. “We followed your lead to Shinra HQ and found some bad people up to bad things.”  
“Of course.” Yuffie could hear the distraction in Shelke’s voice and imagined her in a dark room, lit only by the glow of her eyes and the holographic monitors that surrounded her on all sides. “Did you find anything of value?”  
“Not really. They’re looking for materia, it seems.”  
“We knew that already.”  
Yuffie pulled away from the phone long enough to blow a raspberry. Then, she remembered the data she got from the hard drives and rose to dig through her clothes to find it. She held up the thumb drive in the light. “We got something for you, too.”  
“Good. You should deliver it to me here. I do not trust it going through the W.R.O.’s system.”  
Yuffie frowned and thought of Reed. Then, she thought of Reeve, and her frown deepened. “Know what? Neither do I. I’ll be there soon to see you in person.”  
“Good. I have something to tell you when you get here.”

Midgar Region: W.R.O.’s Hunter’s Lodge\  
Daisy was awake already when Yuffie called, and she arrived shortly after. Yuffie hid out in her room and nursed her hurt. When Daisy arrived, Yuffie offered a passing farewell to Tifa and the others before going outside. She didn’t eat breakfast because it would just come back up during the car ride.  
Half an hour later they arrive at the Lodge. The surface damage was mostly cleared. Anti-air turrets broken in the assault had been repaired or patched. Their remains stood, stunted, in the distance, their wiry insides tightly knotted or otherwise frayed, exposed like a fresh wound.  
Underneath the damage was still showing. Walls were blackened from flame, cracked and fractured or otherwise collapsed entirely. The workers there were tired and frightened. They looked over their shoulders constantly, fearful of what might come. The W.R.O.’s lingering suspicions helped nothing.  
Yuffie followed Daisy through the halls, holding her stomach and lamenting her decision to forego breakfast. They got her some bread before going to Shelke’s office. When the door opened, she greeted them without looking away from the glowing monitors in front of her. Yuffie groans.  
“You’ve brought the data.”  
Another groan, and Yuffie handed off her thumb drive.  
Shelke turned it over in her hands and gave it a quick glance. Then, she jammed it into a console on her left forearm and started sifting through the data. Her eyes darted around from monitor to monitor. “It’s encrypted.”  
“How long will it take you to break it,” Daisy asked. She tried to follow along with Shelke’s work for a time but gave up after a few seconds.  
“I already have,” Shelke said. “Now, I am compiling data and distilling it to the most important parts. I have to be careful, though. A dip in my productivity might arouse suspicion.”  
Daisy looked at Yuffie, who shrugged and said, “She’s always like this.” Then, she moved forward, stuffing the last of the bread into her mouth and leaning against the wall. Her stomach still felt raw, but she could breathe again. “So, you said you had some other information for me?”  
Shelke nodded absently. Her eyes glowed like the monitors. It wasn’t reflection. They produced their own light. “Yes. The Emerald Lotus didn’t just target Edge. Reports of attacks all over the world have come in. They struck many W.R.O. facilities alongside more public areas, and it seems they were looking for something. A pattern points to something more than materia.”  
“Of course.” Yuffie scratched the back of her head and glanced at Daisy. “Whatever it is, must be old Shinra, huh?”  
“Seems likely,” Daisy said. “And they must think that either we’ve found it or that we know where to find it.”  
“Right.” Yuffie returned her attention to Shelke. “It’s been half a decade and Shinra is still kicking our asses.”  
“Somethings are hard to kill,” she said, fingers flying across a holographic keyboard. “They’ve started many fires to keep us distracted. Reeve will be leaving soon to deal with it.”  
“Probably. How long until you’re done compiling?”  
“I will message you.”  
Yuffie nodded and pushed off the wall. “Then I am going to get breakfast and digest it before we have to go anywhere.” She passed Daisy on the way out and gave a wave over her shoulder. “Happy hunting,” she said, and Daisy followed her.  
Shelke didn’t even look back to see them leave, but she did say goodbye before the door slid shut.

-Disc One-

Yuffie ate a light lunch and then went outside to rest. Her body still ached from the battle the day before, and she didn’t feel comfortable wasting energy on her cure materia. After the surprise attack made by Reed, she didn’t feel comfortable wasting her energy on anything. The halls were narrow now and dark, and everyone was jumping at shadows.  
Daisy kept her company. They set out on the deck, watching the sky. It was clear, devoid of cloud or smoke, and they could smell the sea again. From where they were, they could see canyons in the distance and the dusty red landscape of wastes. On the opposite side, they could see Edge and the ruins of Midgar rising behind it.  
Midgar, the city where it all began and, for her, where it all ended. She didn’t get the chance to fight Sephiroth in the planet’s core, but she was branded a hero anyway. When she was young, she always felt cheated being stuck with Reeve and Vincent at the meteor’s impact. It was probably why she was so quick to join the W.R.O.  
During the Deep Ground crisis, she was on the front lines, fighting right alongside Vincent. At the beginning it felt to her like she was making up for her inactivity during the final battle. After the fight with Nero, however, she had a different perspective. It was so dangerous, so deadly, and she was lucky to have survived. Looking back, she isn’t so sure how she would have handled Sephiroth. The thought still shook her sometimes.  
The Emerald Lotus attacks were beginning to feel the same way. Yuffie could see something wrong, and she could see no one was taking steps to fix it, but she didn’t feel right fixing it herself. The end of the world was a fight she had avoided twice already, and she wasn’t qualified to be in the middle of it now.  
Reeve cleared his throat beside her and drew her attention. He was wearing a white vest and pants, with the vest buttoned up to his neck. His beard was neatly trimmed and his hair styled, but he had bags under his eyes. “You look distracted,” he said, and he leaned forward. Yuffie glanced at Daisy, who was keeping her distance, and then returned her attention to Reeve. “Care to talk about it?”  
“Nothing to talk about.” Yuffie sat up, stretched. “Just thinking about old battles.”  
Reeve nodded. “I do the same sometimes.” He grinned. “It seemed simpler back then, didn’t it? Back when the evil was so obvious.”  
“Wasn’t obvious to some people,” Yuffie said, and she gave her own grin. “Some of us worked for them.”  
Reeve laughed. “Some of us did.” He adjusted his cuffs and looked her head on. “Yuffie, we found a curious thing the other night. A group of Lotus soldiers had infiltrated an old Shinra lab beneath Midgar. By the time we mobilized and ended up on scene they were already neutralized. Would you happen to know anything about that?”  
“Nope. I was with Daisy all night last night.”  
Reeve glanced at Daisy, who stared resolutely out at the sea. “Were you? And what were you doing, exactly?”  
“Checking some leads on materia trade and keeping away from the Emerald Lotus, like you asked.”  
Reeve hummed and smoothed his suit. “Fine. If you want to be that way.” He stands straight, towering over her like he does so many people. He really was tall. Sometimes, when he spoke with her casually, she forgot about that. When he looked at her like a disappointed parent, however, she could see it clearly. “I know you won’t listen, but I am warning you as a friend. Stay out of it, Yuffie.”  
“Stay out of what, sir? We were just doing our jobs.”  
He frowned. “Of course.” He went to the door and left her there, alone with Daisy, who hazarded a glance back at Yuffie only after he left.  
“He knows.”  
“Of course he knows,” Yuffie said. “We weren’t discreet.”  
“Should we be worried?”  
“Nah. We go way back.”  
Daisy sighed. “I don’t think that will protect you much longer.”  
“Maybe, but it will protect me for now.” Yuffie’s phone chimed, and she pulled up a message from Shelke. Then, she stood from her seat. “That was fast. Come on, Shelke has gotten it ready. Let’s go and see where we’re off to next.”  
Daisy sighed and nodded her agreement, and she followed Yuffie back inside.

-Disc One-

Shelke doesn’t turn to greet them as they enter her room. The door slid shut behind them, trapping them in darkness and the blue glow of the holographic monitors, which were suspended in the shadows. Information flashes across each monitor in a blur, and Daisy has a hard time believing any of it is memorized.  
Yuffie moved forward and leaned on Shelke’s chair. “A little birdy told us you had some information.”  
“Is the door closed?”  
Yuffie glanced back. “Of course. Do you see the light in here?”  
Shelke took the time to look around. She returned to her work, fingers dancing across her keyboard with robotic precision. “I hadn’t noticed.” Code drifted across screens, looking to Yuffie like alien script. “I was able to access the files,” Shelke said. “It was old and damaged. Much of it is fragmented as a result.”  
“Of course it is.” Yuffie sighed toward Daisy, who gave a shrug. “We can never get a break, huh?”  
“Was it all for nothing,” Daisy asked. She had leaned against the door frame and watched from a distance. Shelke frightened her, and Yuffie’s relationship with Shelke confused her.  
“No,” Shelke said absently. She held out the thumb drive Yuffie had given her earlier, and Yuffie scooped it up. “What was left on the drive gave me enough information to search in, and I find a direction.”  
“Oh?’ Yuffie glanced at the screens again but saw nothing. There were personal notes kept in the corner, clipped phrases that meant nothing to the casual observer. “And what direction is that?”  
“Project D,” Shelke said. “Multiple files alluded to this Project D.”  
“Let me guess, a secret Shinra project?”  
Shelke nodded. “It was run by Shinra’s Science Division many years ago. Information is sparse, but drawing from other sources, I was able to ascertain the goal of the project: the creation of specialized, military grade, hyper powerful materia.”  
Yuffie frowned. “Makes sense. And that’s what Lotus is after?”  
“That I do not know.”  
“Right, right.” Yuffie paced a small circle around the room, which was cluttered with cables and hardware. She was careful to avoid them as she marched over around and scratched her head. She stopped behind the holographic monitors and stared through them at the glowing faces of Shelke and Daisy. Only Daisy seemed to look back. “Well, that’s good, I guess, but we already knew they were after materia.”  
“There is more,” Shelke said. She glanced at Yuffie with empty, glowing eyes. “I cross-referenced the information on these files with information from the W.R.O. databases.”  
“And?”  
“And what I found was highly classified. Even I didn’t have clearance.”  
“So you hacked it?”  
“So I hacked it,” Shelke said, allowing a ghost of a smile. “The information was well-guarded, but it led me to an index showing the location of an isolated database that should have what we want.”  
“Isolate database?”  
“High level security. Anything connected to the network can be accessed by anyone with enough time and skill. To keep something truly private, you keep it isolated from the network, which is what any adequately run organization will do. Even then, references to it are kept for practical use, but clearance must be given before the files can ever be accessed. All of the details about Project D are hidden in the W.R.O.’s primary databases, beneath HQ.”  
Yuffie rubbed her chin. “So, we already knew about all of this.”  
“It appears so,” Shelke said. “It has never been secret that Shinra has facilities beneath Midgar.”  
“But they never made it public knowledge, either.” Yuffie eyes went wide. “There might be more facilities we don’t know about. Which means if we access the database, then we can figure out Lotus’ next move.”  
Shelke nodded.  
Yuffie whooped and reached through the monitors to hug Shelke, who allowed it limply. “Thank you, thank you so much you little brat!” Then, she ruffled Shelke’s hair on the way to the door. Daisy stood from the wall and waited.  
“Be careful, Yuffie Kisaragi. This information isn’t meant to be seen by people of your clearance. It will be dangerous, and it may lead to trouble.”  
Yuffie grinned. “Then we’ll just have to keep from getting caught.”

-Disc One-

Daisy remained silent as she followed Yuffie outside to the car. They stopped beside it and stared back at the base. The asphalt was still covered in soot from where the battle took place. The air defense towers were shattered stalks of exposed circuitry and carnage. Maintenance workers were taking a break in the hot sun.  
“A lot has happened,” Yuffie said, and then she met Daisy’s gaze. “You’re worried.”  
Daisy looked at her and nodded.  
“About stealing from the W.R.O.?”  
Another nod.  
“You don’t have to come.”  
“I do.”  
Yuffie laughed and shook her head. “Nah, Daze, you don’t. Not there, not this,” she said. “We’re partners and all, and I’m always happy to have you watch my back, but this is full-blown treason at this point. Nothing dubious about it. We’re stealing from our bosses.”  
“I know.” Daisy chewed her cheek and kicked at the asphalt. When she had been assigned to Yuffie, she was excited to see what type of person a hero of the Jenova War would be and, at first, was a little disappointed. Yuffie was loud, impulsive, and disorganized. She hardly seemed like someone who had saved the world.  
After everything that happened, Daisy had changed her mind. It seemed like everyone else was the problem and Yuffie was the only solution. The Emerald Lotus was a crisis on par with Deep Ground, and yet no one was organized. There were no heroes taking to the streets, just two lone women being hobbled at every turn.  
The thought frightened Daisy. More than that, it made her feel weak. She liked working for the Hunters, and she liked working alongside Yuffie and Oliver. It was a good life, hard work, but safe by comparison to what was recently started. Yes, there was combat involved, but it wasn’t war, and what the Lotus brought with them was, and if they were to get caught it would be a front on both sides.  
“Seriously, Daisy,” Yuffie said now, all of the humor leaving her face. In all their years working together, Daisy never saw Yuffie so sober. She looked almost like an adult as she took Daisy’s hands and gave them a squeeze. “I’ll be fine on my own.”  
“No,” Daisy said.  
“Sure, I will. I mean, come on, I’m the great ninja Yuffie.”  
“That’s not what I mean,” Daisy said, and she was shaking. “I’m scared, Yuffie. This is big and it’s scary, and that’s why I know I can’t stay. Something is going on out there. A storm or something, and everyone here just has their heads buried in the sand.” She squeezed Yuffie’s hands back. “And that’s why I know this is where I should be. I just don’t like it.”  
Yuffie laughed. “Me neither,” she said, and she sighed. Sobriety left her, and she smiled like an adolescent again. “Well, then, I guess this will make us partners in crime.”  
Daisy laughed nervously. “I guess, but we’re only doing this because it’s right. Because it has to be done.”  
“Exactly,” Yuffie said. “Betraying them to save them.”  
“How many people thought that way before they died, you think?”  
“Doesn’t matter, Daze, ‘cause we won’t die. Now, come on.” Yuffie grinned and pulled Daisy toward the car. “I think it’s about time we went and broke some rules.”


	13. Disc One, Mission 12

The W.R.O. HQ\  
Yuffie and Daisy drove to HQ and arrived in the late afternoon. On the way, Yuffie reviewed the files given to her. Shelke had created something special for her but didn’t detail it. The thumb drive Yuffie had been given came with a key programmed on it, she learned, a key that would let her get into the lower levels of the HQ.  
After the last attack by Deep Ground, the W.R.O. rebuilt their HQ to be more secure. This rebuilding process meant the relocation of their most important database to underground levels that were dug straight from the soil. There are five levels of security, one of which Yuffie has access to. With the key, Yuffie can make it to the fifth floor.  
After the fifth floor, Yuffie and Daisy will have to force their way through the door which grants them access and manually hack their way into the mainframe. Each database requires a specialized key which changes on the hour. Another program gifted by Shelke will allow them to find the key once connected to the mainframe. The problem is that each level is further segregated into tighter levels of security, which will have to be hacked by Daisy on the way.  
To make matters more complicated, automated defenses roam these private areas, equipped and programmed to kill. Once they break through on the first hack, they will have to move quickly before their protocols recognize the hack and wipe, turning Yuffie and Daisy back into enemies. Yuffie detailed this to Daisy on the way, between nauseous burps and breaks to vomit out the side of the car door.  
She wiped her mouth after leaving her lunch and some of her stomach lining across the wastes. “And that’s all there—ugh—is to it.”  
“Sounds easy.” Daisy glanced at Yuffie as the HQ rose into view before them. “You okay?”  
“Peachy—Erg—Keen.” She vomited immediately afterward.  
W.R.O. HQ rose out of the mountains that surrounded it like a shining glass dagger. It caught the light and threw it for miles, and Yuffie found herself squinting at the approach. It had recovered from the Deep Ground attack and gained a few more stories to boot. The asphalt and cement that surrounded it had swallowed the area almost entirely and was marked with barracks and buildings. It was becoming a city of its own almost.  
Daisy and Yuffie were permitted access to the HQ proper and pulled up to the front where they left Daisy’s car. They lingered beside it, Daisy staring fondly at it and running her hand along the hood while Yuffie nursed her churning stomach.  
“We’ll be back,” Yuffie belched, “to get it. I promise.”  
“There’s no way we’re getting out of here the way we came, Yuffie.” Daisy patted the hood. “You’ve been good to me, girl.”  
“Can we just—ugh—just go, please?”  
“Momma will be back eventually, I promise.”  
They leave the parking lot to together and cross a narrow strip of concrete to the main office. Yuffie breathed through her pain. “You know, your love for that car is a bit unsettling.”  
“You would love it, too, if you didn’t get sick every time we ride in it.”  
“Yeah. I’m sure that would help.”  
They entered through the front and were saluted by two guards at attendance. Daisy gave her own salute while Yuffie offered only a wave. Then, they followed the map toward an elevator tucked into the left corner of the lobby, which took them down below. Their clearance got them to Level 2 and, using the codes given by Shelke, they went deeper. The elevator was made of glass and steel and they watched the dirt and stone travel by them in a flash.  
At the bottom they were met by three people—two guards and a receptionist with a pistol at his hip. They welcomed them in and asked to see their clearance, and Yuffie laughed and lead them inside.   
“Would you believe I left it in my other pants?”  
“No,” the man said. The two guards closed in behind them and leveled their rifles at Yuffie’s head.  
Daisy lifted her hands. “That was your plan?”  
They went to their knees, and Yuffie kept grinning. The guard behind her lowered his rifle to cuff her and, when he closed in, she wheeled around and took him by the wrists. His friend lifted his rifle toward her but found the first guard’s body in the way. Yuffie kicked the first guard into the second and knocked the gun away.  
The receptionist drew his pistol and readied to fire but found the first guard in the way again. Yuffie had pulled him back to her, repositioning him in front of her while using the momentum to kick the second guard in the gut and knock him to the ground.  
First grabbed Yuffie by the neck and lifted her. He turned to slam her to the ground, and she used the momentum to wheel around his arm while sending out a flash of blue light across the room, freezing the second guard to the wall. Yuffie twisted the first guard’s arm back and then landed hard, snapping the bone and sending him to his knees.  
The receptionist staggered as gunfire filled the room and then fell. Daisy used her gun to pistol whip the guard beside her and then looked to Yuffie, who approached the desk to check the receptionist, who was on the ground holding his chest. She stepped over him and kicked him unconscious.  
She looked up. “No bullet wounds.”  
“Rubber bullets,” Daisy said, cocking her gun with a smile.  
“Clever girl. Now, come on, let’s get into the database.”  
Daisy sighed and approached the glass door inside. “Easier said than done!”  
Yuffie watched the elevator as Daisy kneeled in front of the keypad beside the door. To get in, Daisy had to pry the front of the keypad off and dig around in the circuitry. She sliced wires and put them together, trying to find the triggering mechanism that would pull it open, and she was careful to do it without an alarm.  
After a few minutes of effort, the door slid open, and Daisy stood to greet Yuffie with a smile. “You did good,” Yuffie said, messing Daisy’s hair and having her hand slapped in return. They entered into the database together and stopped in the entry way to survey the room.  
The database was a room with a glass floor, lit by dim blue lights from above and below. Large steel pillars of exposed circuitry filled the room, each standing taller than the girls and evenly spaced part. In the very center of the room was a network kiosk which could be used to access the system, and Yuffie was sure that the kiosk would require proper clearance.  
Automated turrets walked the room on four legs, clanking heavily as they moved, and the glass endured they constant vigilance. Large red eyes sat just below their barrels, gleaming in the near-darkness and casting a haze of light wherever they looked. Daisy tensed as one fixed its gaze on her, but system didn’t go off. It merely stomped past her.  
“The alarm didn’t go off,” Yuffie said, giving Daisy a grin. “Looks like they think we should be here.”  
“Yeah, but I wouldn’t count on that lasting,” Daisy said, and she led the way through the database to the kiosk. Yuffie stopped at her side and survey the glass walls, which showed the dark earth and stone beyond them. There were cameras on the walls, but they were connected to the front desk and little else, she would imagine. She didn’t bother breaking them, as that would only draw attention to them.  
Daisy stood before the kiosk and pulled up the first screen, and she then took Yuffie’s data-drive from her and inserted it, and she let Shelke’s program go to work. The files they wanted were further encrypted, probably with passcodes only Reeve and his shadowy council of supporters had access to. Daisy copied them over anyway.  
“Find anything?”  
“Nothing we can read now.”  
“But if we get it to Shelke...”  
“Maybe,” Daisy said, and she sighed. “Hopefully.” She watched one of the turrets stomp by. “You know, you always drag me into these things.”  
“You said you wanted to come.”  
“Not wanted. Had to.”  
“Same difference.” Yuffie squeezed her shoulder. “Either way, I appreciate the help.”  
Daisy managed to smile, though it was still strained. She gave Yuffie a wary gaze. “Well, you wouldn’t have made it past the front door without me.”  
“Exactly.”  
The lights in the room dimmed and adopted a red glow. The file transfer died and, just before the machine can wipe her drive entirely, Daisy yanked it out and handed it to Yuffie. Both girls glanced around the room as the cameras fix on them. The red glow of the eyes blended into the lights from above and below, but they could hear the machines closing in.  
Daisy drew one pistol. “Yuffie?”  
“I think they know we’re here.”  
“Clearly.”  
“Those rounds live?”  
“Yes.”  
“Good. Don’t shoot me.” Yuffie disappeared into the darkness.  
“Yuffie? Yuffie! Damn it.” Daisy leveled her pistol and stared down the sight. Wherever she moved, she kept it up, and she backed slowly away from the kiosk, peeking around corners as she went and keeping her back to the long rows of exposed circuitry.  
Across the room, against the far wall, she heard the hiss of sparks and felt the floor shake. Smoke pooled in the air as one of the machines died. By that point, Daisy was halfway to the door and heard the machines stomping around to intercept her. She peeked around the corner before moving to the next database but didn’t see anything.  
Another hiss and more smoke as one of the machines was fell. It was harder to see now and growing hard to breathe. The door closed in the lockdown and even the light from outside was made dim and hazy. Daisy moved again, keeping low and stepping lightly, as Yuffie taught her. Every one of her foot falls sounded louder than she meant for it to.  
The ground shook and a flash of light filled one of the edges in the room. Yuffie’s shadow was superimposed across the walls but only as a blur. The room smelled of burning circuits. The last machine was stomping nearby. Daisy peeked around the corner and then charged the doorway. She stopped at the keypad and pried it from the wall, exposing the wires and coughing as she began cutting them.  
The floor rattled and the red light of the room grew more defined. Daisy grabbed her gun from the floor and turned to find one of the machines standing before her, turrets leveled and churning to life, its red eye glowing like the pits of hell. Then, it dipped slightly as a shadow alighted on its back. Its crown sparked, its body sagged, and then it collapsed, its red eye blinking. Yuffie leaped from its back and landed on the floor, her shuriken out. Fingers of electricity stretch between the blades, centered around one of the materia imbedded into grip  
Daisy released a big breath and coughed. The air was thick with smoke. Yuffie rose slowly and worked her shuriken into the doors and, with a grunt, forced them open. Fresh air filled the room, and she led Daisy out into the foyer before reaching through and pulling her shuriken from the other side.  
“Yuffie...”  
“Sorry, we didn’t have time to hack the panel again.” Yuffie went to the elevator and pried it open next. “They know we’re here, so everything will be shut down.”  
Daisy cleared her throat and stood. She wiped the tears from her eyes. “We have to climb again, don’t we?”  
Yuffie laughed. “That’s about ninety-five percent of adventuring, you know.”  
Daisy groaned.  
“Come on, it won’t be so bad. It’s nothing like the Shinra building.”  
“I guess.”  
Yuffie stepped into the elevator and forced the top open. She climbed up and then helped Daisy after her. “They’ll be waiting for us, too. So, be careful.”  
“Right.” Daisy nodded and switched clips in her guns, making both non-lethal before they started the climb.  
Yuffie led them up and stopped at the elevator doors. She swung forward, catching her foot on the edge of the door and wriggling her fingers between them for a grip. She put her ear to the opening and listens. Outside, she could hear soldiers stomping into place and weapons priming. She looked back down at Daisy. “You stay here and keep your head down.”  
“Keep my head...”  
“I’ll take care of this.”  
“Yuffie? Yuffie!”  
Yuffie pried the doors open and hugged the side, propping one foot into the corner and pinning herself to the wall. The roar of gunfire filled the tiny elevator shaft. Daisy winced below as hot steel rained down from above. The bullets filled the chamber, denting the wall and leaving the air hazy with heat. They unloaded their clips before realizing there were no enemies there.  
“Reload! Quickly!”  
Yuffie grinned and swung around before Daisy could even resume her climb. She leaped into the room, rolled to a stop and looked up long enough to survey the room. Her bracer gleamed in magical light, and her body adopted a faint glow before blurring slightly, and then she was gone.  
The soldiers scrambled, some of them fumbling with new clips for their rifles. Those that remained calm fired short, tight clusters of bullets away from their allies wherever they saw a flash and were immediately dropped with a series of powerful blows.  
There were forty soldiers in the room and, by the time Daisy had crawled out from the elevator shaft, they were all down except one. Their commander had kept his head down. He leveled his rifle on Daisy thinking to use her as a hostage, but before he could speak, Yuffie had him disarmed and knocked unconscious with a flurry of kicks.  
She landed in the center of the floor, shuriken fixed to her back, panting and breathing as she did. Daisy sat quietly on her knees, staring, and then Yuffie stood and smiled. “And that is why they call me the Great Ninja Yuffie.”  
“How did you do that?”  
“Old ninja trick,” Yuffie said, breathing deeply and slowly gathering herself.  
“Haste materia?”  
“That is the trick,” Yuffie said, and she looked around the room. “That should be good. Let’s take this information and get out of here before they wake up.”  
Daisy stood and holstered her gun. She nodded slowly as she appraised Yuffie’s handiwork. “Uh. Yeah, sure.”  
The ground rumbled and the girls stopped. They traded glances between themselves and then followed the noise outside. Through the glass walls looking outside, they could see an enormous steel beast rolling toward them, treads for feet and with a body of gleaming plates and white paint trimmed with blue and yellow. A rounded head sat at the top of a pair of broad, human-like shoulders with a single red eye burning brightly as it approached. Two arms held turrets and mounted over the shoulders were a twin-pair of large cannons.  
It rolled through the front, collapsing the glass on its way and coming to a stop staring at them. Yuffie was slightly farther ahead, and she drew her shuriken within the space of a breath. Behind her, she heared Daisy cock her pistols, and she held her hand up. “No.”  
“Uh, what?”  
Lifting her bracer, Yuffie slid a compartment open and took out two materia, one green in color and the other light blue. She tossed them back to Daisy while the machine resumed movement, venting heat as it did, and it turned its cannons on them. “Focus the Protect materia through the blue one and don’t let it down until that thing stops moving.”  
“Again, what?”  
“It’s an All. It will keep everyone safe. Do it now!”  
“What about you?” Daisy hardly had the words out when the cannon’s roared. She reacted quickly and conjured the shield just in time. A golden light appeared before her, forming from the air. It spread like water but formed into a solid mass when the shells came in and undulated as they made impact. The barrier held but the force of the blow knocked Daisy to her knees. All around her the floor was shattered, tiles being fractured and tossed into the air in a spray of dust and debris. She heard glass shattering beyond the magic.  
As the dust settled, Yuffie was missing. While Daisy couldn’t see her, the mech seemed to be following something as its red eye darted about the room. Its turrets hummed and tossed casings to the ground as bullets rapidly ate away at the walls. Whatever it was shooting at was faster than Daisy could follow, though from time to time she thought something passed by through her periphery.  
Then, her hair stood on end. A charge filled the air and a flash of light blinded her. The machine groaned and hissed, venting steam as it rolled back toward the entrance. Arcs of electricity jumped between its plates, which bubbled and burned. Another shock and a shout of thunder, and the machine shuddered as if in pain. The glass over its central eye exploded outward.  
Footfalls and Yuffie appeared, her shuriken imbedded in the machine’s head. She was a flash of movement, there long enough only to grab at her weapon before disappearing in a blur of motion and light. Daisy saw the faint trail of her materia glowing as she passed.  
Two more sensors appeared in the thing’s shoulders. It began unloading again, the sound of its gunfire chased at the heels by the empty casings dancing along the floor. Its treads left deep gashes where it rolled and the HQ began to look more like a warzone than anything else, echoing the last attack made on it. This infiltration wasn’t quiet as Daisy had hoped it would be.  
Boom and the cannons fired with a haze of smoke. These shells went overhead and crashed into the second floor. The stonework fractured and held for only a second before folding inward. Daisy turned in time to move her shield. The barrier caught the rubble and let it slide off the sides safely, bowing outward and collecting the debris around the unconscious soldiers. A few shards had fallen on them before she managed to turn, though, leaving deep gashes and broken bones on their unconscious.  
Behind her the turrets turned, and she heard the whine of them coming to life. Then a chill passed over the room, and she looked over her shoulder and found Yuffie there, breathless, her hand up and shuriken gleaming. One of the turrets was iced over, but the other was leveled and ready to fire.  
Yuffie held her shuriken with both hands and closed her eyes, and she took a breath. The air grew thick and goosebumps broke out over Daisy’s body. She watches Yuffie’s hair go stiff and dance on end, watched the metal of her zipper entertain fingers of electricity that danced along its teeth. Yuffie’s eyes opened, and the materia at the end of her shuriken shined brighter than the sun.  
Another flash, this one brighter than before, and the air was rent in two, sizzling with the heat of the lightning. The walls rattled and more debris was shaken loose. What glass remained shattered, and Daisy felt her ears ache. She winced and, when she opened her eyes, the machine had its core melted out. A few stray arcs of lightning lingered as it folded in on itself, the red-hot steel unable to support its weight.  
Yuffie went to one knee, and Daisy went to her. “You okay?” Yuffie nodded. “Are you sure? You look hurt.”  
“Just winded.” Yuffie gave a smile and forced herself to stand. She moved stiffly. “Materia takes a lot out of a person, even if that person is me.” She patted Daisy on the shoulder. “Good job, by the way.”  
“Thanks, but...” Daisy looked at the injured soldiers.  
“Nah, don’t worry about that.” Yuffie took her materia back and put it in place, and then she took a deep breath and staggered over to the group of soldiers.  
“Yuffie? What’re you doing?”  
“Helping.” Yuffie stopped among them, slouched and fatigued. She looked pale and broken, the battle having drained her of everything she had. For her life, Daisy couldn’t figure out how Yuffie meant to help anyone. She couldn’t cast; she could barely walk. She was at her limit, but Yuffie didn’t care. She kept moving.  
Yuffie kneeled among the bodies, her own body glowing faintly, her eyes closed. With her head bowed, she leaned forward on her shuriken, holding it tightly in one hand while falling forward, almost ready to give out. She clutched it tight and the light formed a sphere around her, swelling and moving like ocean light. It spread, encircling those around her in its light. Every soldier was caught in a bulb of light, which swelled and spread across them.  
Daisy watched as the light bursts like bubbles, casting a blue afterglow like dew through the air. As it did, their wounds vanished, washed away by the glow. The light dimmed and felt lighter, the air smelled vaguely of water and sweat, and Yuffie fell sideways onto the tiles. “Yuffie!” Daisy rushed to her side.  
Together, they got Yuffie up and helped her toward the door. Behind them, the soldiers were stirring. Daisy looked over her shoulder and found no one following as she rushed toward the parking garage. “Yuffie? Yuffie! You okay?”  
“Fine. Tired.” Yuffie leaned against a wall and vomited, and she groaned.  
“You going to be good to ride?”  
“Haf’to.”  
Daisy sighed and led her deeper. “Right.” She laughed as they rounded a corner. “What in the world did you do in there?”  
“Helped.”  
“Yeah, but how?”  
Yuffie managed only a shrug, and they were quiet the rest of the way to the car. Daisy helped Yuffie inside and closed the door, and she pulled away before the soldiers could scramble to stop them. They were on the road a few miles away before Daisy eased off of the accelerator and took the time to check on Yuffie. The other was breathing, faintly, leaned against the door with her head hanging just over the side, and she was sleeping soundly with spittle running down her cheek.  
She looked young at that moment and even frail, but Daisy remembered the day’s events clearly. Single-handedly, Yuffie overcame every danger there, and she was determined not to hurt anyone in doing so. Daisy knew at times Yuffie worried she wasn’t a hero but, after that day, Daisy had no more doubts left.


	14. Disc One, Mission 13

Midgar Region: Mountains\  
After leaving the W.R.O. HQ, Daisy drove them to the mountains to seek refuge. They abandoned Daisy’s car at the base of the mountain, hidden among the trees, and made camp in a small cave halfway up. There, Yuffie fell asleep against the cavern wall while Daisy kept a fatigued watch.  
The W.R.O. knew their faces and would follow them. They would capture them, too, and while Daisy felt sure that Reeve would make some effort to help, she also knew that even he couldn’t protect them from what they did. All actions have reactions, and she felt certain that this time, it wouldn’t end in their favor.  
After Yuffie woke up, she let Daisy sleep, and she paced the cavern mouth as the sun set. Stretching her legs and nibbling on the rations they brought, Yuffie sat down at the edge of the cliff and stared out into the distance. The air was clear there and cool, but they had brought blankets and other survival gear with them.  
She pulled out the thumb drive and put it into her bracer, pulling up the holographic interface and digging through the data. The files were each encrypted, but Shelke gave them a program of some sort specially designed to break the encryption. It took time to dig through the code, but once she was in, she had an entirely new world opened up to her.  
Daisy woke up around midnight and found Yuffie still working, pouring over the data. They had been partners for years, hunting for materia together side-by-side, and she had never seen Yuffie so focused before. Sometimes, like back at the HQ, Daisy would get glimpses of the woman Yuffie must have been during the Jenova War, though, and in those moments, it was hard to imagine she could be anyone else.  
The cool air left them shivering, so Daisy made a quick fire and led Yuffie over to it. The younger woman hardly refused to look up from her bracer. Another hour passed, and Daisy made them food on the fire. The W.R.O. hadn’t pursued them yet, or at least they hadn’t found them yet. After they ate, Daisy took to cleaning her gun by the firelight.  
They slept and started early the next morning, and Yuffie hardly spoke. Daisy went for a hike to stretch her legs and came back to find Yuffie pacing. They stopped in the cavern mouth together and faced each other.  
“Done?”  
Yuffie gave a nod. She stood with her hands on her hips, but she didn’t stand for long. Something compelled her to pace again, to keep moving.  
“And? Please, tell me you found something. Tell me we didn’t make an enemy of the world’s government for nothing.”  
“Found a lot of stuff. A lot of secrets.” She shook her head. “These bastards. There’s so much, Dais, so many secrets, so many lies hidden from view, even from us. Even from me. Shinra did experiments, a lot of them, a lot we don’t know about, with Mako, with people, with materia, and they hid it anywhere that had shadows deep enough to keep people from seeing. And the W.R.O. knows. All of it. And they’re hiding it.”  
“What are you talking about?”  
“The files that Reed was looking at were about something called Project D. We couldn’t get everything before the sentries stopped us, but we did get a location.” Yuffie tapped a few keys onto her bracer and pulled up a map of the world. She closed distance between them and pointed to a blank area in the middle of the ocean. “Here.”  
“What’s there?”  
Yuffie took a deep breath. “Materia, which is what the Emerald Lotus is after, right? But not any materia. Materia made from people, made with human lives. Grown inside of them, feeding on them. Killing them.”  
Daisy paused, and then took a deep breath. She held it inside of her until her thoughts settled and then exhaled. “Okay. That’s...Wow. And the W.R.O. knows?”  
“They’re keeping it. All of it. Powered and running.”  
“Are they still running the experiments?”  
“That’s what we need to find out.”  
Daisy shook her head and paced a small circle. She then went to gathering her things. “We’ll need a boat, then.”  
Yuffie sighed. “A boat.”  
“Sorry.”  
“No, you’re right.” Yuffie gathered her things, too. She slipped her shuriken into place on her back. “I just wish you weren’t.”

Off-Shore W.R.O. Facility\  
They found a boat and take it out to sea, riding the shifting waters out to nowhere. On the way, Yuffie held the side of the boat, vomiting whenever the urge would strike her, and she let Daisy lead the charge. Periodically, she would comment how she can’t wait to make it to dry land or, in lieu of that, something solid.  
The facility appeared in the distance. To the casual observer, it looked like an old Shinra power plant. The sea air has oxidized the outer shell, leaving much of the platform dusted with a rusty outer coating. It was stable, though, holding against large, crashing waves. No one would suspect it was anything more than a vestige of the past, except there were few birds there and even the fish seemed to stay away. Boats were docked to one side when the duo arrived.  
They approached without notice, killing the engines once they were close enough and gliding forward. As soon as they could, they climbed onto the hard asphalt of the facility and sought refuge behind a few large, rusted transport cannisters. Yuffie rested her back against it and took deep breaths as she tried to settle her stomach. Daisy peeked around the sides.  
“It’s empty.” Daisy said. She drew her guns and set the safety off on both, just in case, and she leaned back to look at Yuffie. “Where is everyone?”  
Yuffie shrugged and sat up. She leaned around. The facility looked Shinra in origin but there were upgrades made. They were shoddy at best, but they were enough to keep someone from looking deeper. It was adapted into an oil platform, like the one Barret worked on, but none of it looked real up close. The machine was largely inert and, from what Yuffie could tell, potentially hollow.  
“I don’t like this.”  
Yuffie caught sight of something in the distance and squinted, and then she shuffled back into hiding. She drew her shuriken and took a deep breath, and she pulled Daisy with her and held her fingers to her lips. Then, she pointed around. Daisy peeked and squinted, too.  
“What am I looking at?”  
“At the blood,” Yuffie said. “They’re under attack.”  
“Lotus.”  
“Exactly.” Yuffie stood and rounded the steel crate. “Come on, we have to hurry.”  
Daisy followed close, across the hot asphalt of the facility, and came to a stop behind her. They peeked around another crate and found three Lotus soldiers standing together with W.R.O. soldiers tied up between them. The W.R.O. were breathing shallowly, bloodied at the mouth and some unconscious. Two Lotus, one a stout female and the other a slight male, stood nearby, talking as they kept watch, assault rifles ready. The third was busy binding the remaining W.R.O. soldiers.  
“Guard duty,” said the female soldier. She shook her head and adjusted the shoulder strap of her rifle. “I mean, come on. What’re we guarding for? We’ve already cleaned up.” She looked at the slight male beside her. “Think what I said got back to the commander?”  
Slight shrugged, one hand on his hip. “Might have, but that doesn’t explain why I was put here with you. Anyways, she’s not in charge here. It’s Hollis and that other guy. Commander is just following orders, I think.”  
Stout pursed her lips. “I’m not so sure they’re that hands on. Hollis doesn’t seem to care about anything but breaking stuff, and the other guy is...always distracted.”  
“Wait a minute,” said the Lotus binding the guard, standing and glaring over at the two. “Wait a damn minute here! Are you telling me we got this posting cause you were mouthing off about the commander?”  
Stout rolled her eyes. “I didn’t say anything much, I just said...”  
While they talked, Yuffie stalked a wide circle around them, using various machinery to keep her presence hidden. Daisy positioned herself behind them, pistols ready, and watched for Yuffie’s movement. Before the woman could finish her sentence, Yuffie charged, closing distance and landing a kick to Slight’s chest, knocking him to the ground while the other two scrambled to respond.  
Stout reacted quickly, stepping in and taking a wide swing. Yuffide ducked under, using Stout’s momentum to flip her through the air and bring her down prone, on her back. Meanwhile, Bindings stood, gun drawn, but she only just had it level by the time Yuffie yanked it from her hands and disassemble it before her. Then, Yuffie danced around her, twisting her around and throwing her face-first into a nearby wall.  
While Bindings fell, Stout and Slight stood and readied weapons. Stout had a dagger, while Slight brandished brass knuckles. They closed in on Yuffie, who met them part way, crouched low and moving quickly. She kneed Stout in the gut and kicked her away before turning to Slight and elbowing him in the face.  
Then, she turned to Stout and smiled. “You’re tougher than your friends. Or, at least, you’re still standing, but that won’t last long. Because I’m...”  
“The Great Ninja Yuffie. We know.”  
Yuffie frowned. “You know, it just sounds silly when you say it.”  
“I’m not afraid of you.” Stout readied her knife, pointed the gleaming tip toward Yuffie’s heart. “None of us are. We know what kind of hero you are. The one who stands on the sidelines while your friends do all the real work.”  
Yuffie’s frown deepened. She popped her knuckles, one-by-one. “You know, I was kind of starting to like you.”  
“Glad I could change your mind.”  
Yuffie closed distance again, moving in close as Stout made quick jabs that didn’t land. They moved together, Stout retreating into a canister behind her and going stiff as Yuffie moved in to knee her in the gut. The blow was surprisingly strong and left her kneeling. She reached down for a small knife, which gleamed as she drew it, and was about to make another assault when she felt cold steel to her crown. She looked up to find Yuffie, arms crossed, and frowning at Daisy.  
“I had this.”  
“I’m sure,” Daisy said, cocking her gun for dramatic effect. “But I’m tired of watching you scuffle, and we have a job to do.”  
Yuffie sighed and shrugged, looking at Stout as if to say, “What can you do?” Then, she kneeled down and looked Stout in the eyes. She took the knife from her and tossed it aside. “So, you going to talk now?” Stout spit into her face, and Yuffie grimaced. She gave a look at Daisy, who was chuckling to herself, and then kicked Stout hard across the face.  
“Yuffie!” Daisy sighed, put the safety on her gun. “We’re not going to get information from her now.”  
“Yeah, yeah,” Yuffie said, wiping her face clean. She kneeled down and started undressing Stout.  
“Um. What’re you doing?”  
“Getting something better than information from her,” she said, and she looked toward the other two. “I’m sure one of those will fit you, too.”  
Daisy looked between them. She frowned. “No. We’re not.”  
“We are,” Yuffie said, as she carefully pulled Stout from her pants. “Infiltration is key in these sorts of situations. Subterfuge. It’s all part of being a great ninja.”  
“Yeah, well, I’m not a great ninja.” Daisy grimaced as she went to the other woman and started undressing her. She pinched her nose and gagged. “This thing smells awful.”  
“You think that’s bad. Just imagine how sticky it’ll be in there. I don’t think they have much time to bathe between the terrorism and bombings, do you?” Yuffie stepped into Stout’s pants and found they fit her well, so long as she keeps her own clothes on underneath. She looked over at Daisy, who was still struggling to get the other woman out of her clothes in tacit disapproval. “Come on, hurry it up, will you?”  
“I really don’t like this idea.”  
“I know, and I don’t care. Now, strip.”

-Disc One-

After changing, Yuffie and Daisy discussed how to proceed. They regard both the benefit and danger of freeing the W.R.O. soldiers, especially after their own troubles with the organization, and decided to leave them tied up. Before going, Yuffie stowed her weapon in a nearby crate while Daisy bound the Lotus soldiers left beside the W.R.O. soldiers they had just captured.  
The surface of the facility was mostly empty, save for the soldiers already captured. It took them nearly thirty minutes to find anymore Lotus and, those they found were entirely at ease. Yuffie understood. The facility itself was remote enough so as not to draw much attention it wasn’t already due, and it wasn’t due much attention at all, except by people already distracted interested in it.  
Yuffie and Daisy approached the Lotus from the front, Yuffie making eye contact, waving when necessary, and Daisy staring fixedly at the ground. These soldiers were clustered around the central elevator, a large, open platform that led into the deeper parts of the facility. A few others were busy cataloging and organizing materia before loading it onto a few helicopters that sat nearby. From where they were it difficult to see the sky anymore. The platform was open, but stacked rectangular shipping containers bordered them on all sides.  
They stepped onto the elevator, and the Lotus guarding it waited as more people piled on. Then, she hit the switch and floor lurched. The machine whined to life as they started their descent, and soon Yuffie couldn’t see the sky at all unless she looked directly up, and even that was narrowing to a dot.  
A few minutes of steel and concrete opened up to a thick glass tubing. Yuffie approached the wall and stared out at the ocean floor, which was lit up by enormous lights. There was a facility below, domed in glass and set with concrete. She could see small, green shapes working among glittering rows of materia.  
“Pretty amazing, huh,” said a Lotus from her side. He was a man, judging from the sound of his voice, and short and thin from the look of him. He carried an assault rifle under his arm, safety on, and when he caught her staring, she could hear a smile in his voice as he said his name. “Garrett.” He held out his hand.  
Yuffie shook his hand and said, “Yu. You new?”  
“Oh. Yeah. Just joined up in the Midgar recruitment. What he said really got to me, you know? You?”  
“Same.” Yuffie looked around and leaned in. She touched his shoulder for good measure, and she knew for certain he was smiling after. “Listen, don’t tell anyone, but all of this is kind of a blur for me, you know? Think you could remind me what the mission is exactly?”  
Garrett laughed and adjusted his rifle strap. She thought he might also be flexing, too. “Of course. It is all a bit hectic, isn’t it? Right now, we’re here gathering up all the materia. Once we have it catalogued and everything, we’ll redistribute it where it’s needed.”  
“All of the materia?”  
“Mostly the cure.”  
“And what about the rest?”  
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Keep it for the war with the W.R.O. Whatever we do with it, I’m sure it’ll be better than letting the government horde all of it.”  
Yuffie nodded silently and stared out into the water. The Emerald Lotus, to her, seemed a lot like the W.R.O., just on a different side. Both of them were so busy reminding everyone how they weren’t the other guy, how they weren’t Shinra, that they didn’t have the time to actually help people. Perhaps there were good ideas at the start, but anywhere she looks, Yuffie can’t even see them.  
The elevator continued its long crawl. Somewhere away from her, Daisy was being chatted up by a female Lotus and looked extremely nervous, but Yuffie trusted her not to ruin the charade. The elevator lurched to a stop, and Yuffie fell into Garrett’s chest, and she made like she was blushing underneath mask.  
“Careful,” he said, helping her to settle herself. She thanked him.  
“Um, hey, I have another question.”   
“Shoot.”  
“Um, who exactly is in charge of this operation again?”  
This time Garrett paused. She couldn’t see him behind his mask, but she was sure he wasn’t just checking her out anymore. Another group of Lotus soldiers were watching, not just her, but Daisy as well.  
“Yu, wasn’t it? Mind telling me when you joined?”  
“Actually, I do,” she said, and she saw him fingering his gun. “Man. I was hoping we could do this easy.”  
The elevator groaned to a stop and powered down, and as the door opened there were two Lotus soldiers left standing with five bodies scattered around them. Daisy checked her guns before holstering them again, and then she followed Yuffie off of the elevator. The two of them found shelter behind one of the waiting materia carts and stole glances out at the underwater facility.  
On the surface, the facility looked to be just like an oil rig or otherwise a Shinra Mako plant. Below, it was clearly something else. Old Shinra machinery, oiled and fitted back into operation, lined a bare concrete floor. An underground vault was set in the center, where Lotus soldiers were fetching fresh, untested materia. It all looked like an old Shinra research facility, save for the W.R.O. emblems on the walls.  
The domed ceiling was made of reinforced glass and, from the ocean floor, the lights outside hardly seemed to display anything above the darkened waters. A whale drifted by, its blue-grey skin shining in the light, and suddenly Yuffie felt very small. She swallowed and breathed, and she checked her surroundings again, searching the Lotus for faces she recalled, but she found no one.  
Most of the soldiers she could see were busy sorting the materia by type and effect. They were taking notes and then loading it into carts, which they wheeled close by and left for the people to take up the elevator. From what she could see, none of them noticed the absence of movement from the elevator. More were working inside of the vault, which was dug into the center of the floor.  
Two Lotus broke from the rest to roll a cart of materia over. Yuffie leaned back into hiding and looked at Daisy, who nodded, and then they parted. Yuffie worked a small arc around the room, keeping to carts and machines for cover, while Daisy retreated back and to the side. When the two Lotus were in range the duo quickly subdued them.  
Both Lotus were men, one tall and thin and the other of more average height and build. They went down hard and were quickly dragged over to where the elevator sat, unused. Average was unconscious but tall and thin managed to stay awake, though judging from the way he moved, he was dazed. Yuffie took a gun from Daisy and struck him across the cheek before putting the barrel to his skull.  
“I won’t tell you not to scream, but I’m sure you’ve already figured out who I am and you know that it won’t help you. It’ll just get you dead.”  
“Actually,” Tall said, his voice strained by the pressure Yuffie placed on his throat with her foot, “I have no idea who you are, but I highly doubt you can stop everyone here on your own.”  
“Doesn’t know who I am.” Yuffie glanced back at Daisy, laughed, and she kicked him across the face hard enough to knock him to the ground. Then, she pinned his head to the floor and removed her mask. “Then take a nice, long look, buddy, and tell me if you can figure it out.”  
He stared at her best he could, blood running from his nose and lips and pooling in his mask. After a long, considerate pause, he said, “No. Not really.”  
“No? Not really? What do you mean,” Yuffie was about to kick him again when Daisy dragged her away and replaced her. She had her other gun ready and pressed it to his skull in Yuffie’s place.   
“It doesn’t matter if you know us, and it doesn’t matter if we can stop everyone here. We can stop you, right here, right now, with one bullet. Do you understand?”  
Tall swallowed the blood in his mouth and nodded slowly. Behind Daisy, Yuffie sulked.  
“Answer our questions, and we’ll leave you unconscious and go on our way. Do you understand that?”  
Another nod.  
“Good. Then, tell us what you’re doing here.”  
“Looking for materia. We’re always looking for materia.”  
“Why?”  
His eyes darted between them. Yuffie had stopped pouting and was now leaning forward, staring him in the eyes. She was more threatening when she was quiet, he decided, and he looked back at Daisy and then at the gun. “I don’t know,” he said, “We want to redistribute it, Lotus says, but we don’t know what he does with it once he gets it.”  
“Then why help him,” Yuffie asked, arms crossed now as she stared down at him.  
“Because it’s better than the W.R.O. hording it.”  
Yuffie groaned, and Daisy held her hand up and pressed the gun more firmly to his forehead. “And why are you looking for materia here?”  
“Don’t know. They didn’t say.”  
Yuffie rolled her eyes. “Of course, they didn’t.”  
“Next, who is in charge of this operation?”  
“There’s three of them, though she seems to be taking orders from the big guy, Hollis, and the traitor.”  
“She,” Yuffie said, but she was drowned out by Daisy now.  
“The traitor? Who is the traitor?” She cocked her gun. “Is it him?”  
“I don’t know his name,” Tall whined quietly, eyes closed and shoulders shaking “He—he worked undercover until recently and helped Hollis escape.”  
“Oliver,” Daisy said, and she leaned back. She looked at Yuffie. “He’s here.”  
“I know.” Yuffie leaned down and looked Tall in the eyes again. “Anything else?”  
The man stared at her. “You’re her, aren’t you? Yuffie.”  
“About damn time.”  
“Hollis is waiting for you. It’s all he’s been talking about.” The man grinned. “He wants to fight you, to kill...” And Daisy silenced him with a swift stroke of her pistol. He fell unconscious in his own blood as the two women stood straight. Yuffie slipped her mask back on and returned Daisy’s gun to her.  
“Wonder what he was going to say,” Yuffie said, fastening the mask.  
“We both know what he was going to say, and we don’t need to hear it.” Daisy looked back, across the room, to where the Lotus were working. “They’re in the vault. Both of them.”  
“All three of them,” Yuffie said. “And that’s where we’re going. Whatever they’re looking for will be in there, if it’s here at all.”  
“Yuffie?”  
“Yeah?”  
“When we find Oliver...Let me handle him. Please.”  
Yuffie looked at Daisy, found her shaking, full of frailty and venom. She knew the danger of trusting it to her, the potential failure, or worse, but she also knew the danger Hollis would pose alone. The options were few, so she nodded, and she said, “Fine, just be careful.” And then, Yuffie led the charge.

-Disc One-

After leaving the elevator platform, Yuffie and Daisy hugged the shadows. Though dressed in Lotus uniforms, neither of them felt confident as they approached. Oliver alone knew them well enough to point them out in a crowd, dressed even as they were, and the last thing they needed was to be surrounded by enemies with three of the top Lotus warriors there to contend with.  
They moved in close, Yuffie leading and Daisy following. Lines of machines made neat rows within the facility floor, some used to examine materia, others for experimentation. It would take a lifetime for Yuffie to understand each little instrument’s exact function, but they were large and bulky, and that made them good for hiding.  
She moved lightly, her footfalls making almost no sound. At the edge of the vault, they found that they could peak inside. From their vantage point it was hard to see clearly, but the vault itself was large, with plenty inside. Hollis stood in the center, pacing around with a bored smirk, towering over everyone around him. The walls glittered with racks of materia, only a quarter of which had been removed so far.  
Yuffie motioned for Daisy to watch the door and waited for the other woman to nod and draw her weapons before moving on. A deep breath, and Yuffie did what she did best. She charged forward, moving silently as she went, and took a handful of materia from the nearby cart on the way. Then, she leaped into the room, a fire materia in hand, and set it off with a flash of flame and a curtain of smoke surrounding her. The Lotus grunts inside were incapacitated before she landed. Those outside were funneled as they approach, and she handled them with a few fingers of lightning left in her wake.  
Oliver turned as the smoke cleared, baton ready and sparking. He pointed it at her and lunged, and she danced around it, throwing him into a wall, dislodging materia on impact. He glared across the room at her. “Yuffie!”  
“Traitor.” She covered her mouth. “Sorry, wait, did I get that wrong? Your name wasn’t traitor...It was…Oh, man, this is so embarrassing. I can’t remember your name, and traitor just seems to fit you so well.”  
Hollis laughed from the center of the room and watched the two with his arms crossed. He didn’t look bored any longer.  
Oliver turned his glare on the big man briefly. “You shouldn’t have followed,” he said, the Lotus soldiers on the ground stirring around them, shaking their heads and nursing their wounds. They start to draw their weapons as they stand, and Oliver releases the trigger on his baton. The hum of electricity fades. “Let us go, Yuffie. Even you can’t win against all of us.”  
“You don’t know that.” She looked around the room and removed her mask, and then she smiled. “Looking at you skinny things, I think I could break a few bones before you even landed a single hit.”  
“Yuffie.”  
“Actually, I think she’s right,” Hollis said. He moved forward now, pushing his way through the soldiers, knocking two to the ground as he passed. “She could handle you lot with no problem, but she won’t get the chance.” He grinned at her. “We have catching up to do, little girl.”  
Yuffie palmed her materia.  
“You go on ahead and take the kids with you,” Hollis said to Oliver. “They’ll only get in the way.”  
“We still have work to do,” Oliver said.  
“Maybe, but if she’s here then the W.R.O. ain’t far behind.”  
“Hollis?”  
“Go. I won’t tell you again. You and the grunts will get caught up in this, and I ain’t holding back this time.” His grin broadened, showing more of his sharp, animal-like teeth. “That’s right, girly. Even your chesty little friend didn’t win outright. It was all part of the plan.”  
“Color me impressed,” Yuffie said flatly. “Oliver, listen to the man. He’s about twice as tall as you and three times as wide. Besides, you’ve got an old friend waiting for you outside, and she’s just dying for a reunion.”  
Oliver looked toward the vault entrance. “Daisy.”  
“That’s the one. I’ll catch up with you two later, after I’ve kicked sideburns here from one side of the facility to the other.”  
Hollis laughed and popped his big knuckles. “I’d like to see you try, girly.”

-Disc One-

Yuffie came hurtling from the vault and hit a nearby table as she landed. The steel folded underneath her and slid away as she rolled in the opposite direction, sliding to a stop a few feet away. Daisy stared from her hiding spot behind one of the different steel instruments, guns still trained on the vault entrance. In a loud whisper, she called, “Yuffie? You okay?”  
Yuffie groaned in response. “Fine. Hollis is mine. Oliver. Goons. You.” She picked herself up off the ground, clutching a cure materia to her chest as she moved. Once the pain in her back was eased enough to free her movement, she dropped the materia beside her and charged forward, hopping over a materia cart on the way.  
Hollis appeared from the vault, grinning at her approach. He had his jacket off now, exposing a beefy, tan chest thick with dark hair. Dropping it beside him, he sunk down into a boxing stance, hands up and feet moving. Behind him, Oliver led a group of Lotus soldiers out under a hail of gunfire.  
Before reaching Hollis, Yuffie hurled a ball of flame toward his face. He punched it out of the air, collapsing it into a cloud of smoke and cinders. Yuffie leaped into this cloud, twirling as she went, and landed what she felt was a solid kick to his chin. He met this by taking her by the leg and hurling her across the room again. This time, Yuffie managed to land on her feet, but she dropped her materia in the effort of regaining her balance and then scrambled into the shadow of a nearby machine for cover.  
The gunfire quieted as the elevator came to life across the room. Yuffie could imagine Daisy following them up, either by stairs or climbing. Below the roar of the gears, she could hear Hollis’ heavy footsteps, bending the metal with each stomp. He stalked the aisles, tossing carts and tables as he went. “Hiding? And here I thought you were the Great Ninja Yuffie, hero of the Jenova War, Conqueror of the Five Gods of the Pagoda!” He laughed as he peeked around one corner and then crushed a steel panel in his bare hands. “Guess you’re like every other Wutai rat there is. All you can do is run.”  
Yuffie fixed her eyes on the floor and moved from spot-to-spot. She kept her distance and used his voice and footfalls to track him. Slowly and carefully, she closed distance on him, always keeping at his back wherever he went. Each of his movements grew more violent, and each of her movements grew more precise in turn. She couldn’t beat him in a straight-out fight, and she knew that.  
Soon materia carts were shattering against walls. Steel panels and electric circuits were parted and exposed, sparking in his hands as he roared in growing frustration. From the corner of her eye, Yuffie spied his large shadow spread by bare lights across the floor, and she made her approach. The attack would be swift and, hopefully, finished before he could react.  
She had to leap to reach him and conjured ice to her palm as she did. It shattered across his neck. Even through the ice, she could feel the stone-sturdiness of his muscles, but she could also see the damage done. He fell to a knee and let out a growl while she flipped over him and struck him again, this time kicking him in the chin as she rolled away and back into hiding.  
He followed her in a daze, swinging wildly and clearing the floor with his big hands. Whole instruments, bolted to the ground, were razed and cast aside. A haze of electric smoke filled the air. Yuffie darted away from him and came to a stop, breathing shallowly as she did. Her lungs hurt, and her limbs were going numb, but she couldn’t let him hear her. One hit from him and it could all be over.  
He was stronger than she remembered or perhaps had been holding back the first time. Their last battle played out in her head. Whatever else he was, Hollis had her in raw physical strength and, that last attack proved to her that, while she can hurt him, she didn’t have the time to whittle away his defenses. Daisy was skilled, but she was also outnumbered, which meant Yuffie had to work fast.  
She thought of Tifa now, thought of how even if Hollis had faked his defeat, Tifa was still the best example she had on how to defeat him. In combat, Tifa was quick and powerful, and that latter aspect gave her an advantage Yuffie needed. What Yuffie had now against Hollis was materia, but once the jammer came into play the battle would be lost in an instant. Which meant she had to take him down before that happened.  
Ultimately, she had to end it with a deathblow—a single, powerful strike. Before that, she would have to weaken him just enough to fracture his base. He stopped her by flexing his muscles last time. She had to keep him from being able to do even that. She didn’t have time for a battle of attrition, but she felt certain she could drop his defenses just long enough to land a single, fatal strike  
Scooping up a few more materia, she attuned them to her body and pocketed another for later use, and then she returned to the chase. Hollis had moved halfway around the room, searching the far corners where she had been hiding. He had done well in clearing everything as he went, reducing her hiding places to folded steel panels and sizzling wires.  
Her approach was a slow, wide spiral. With the area he had cleared out she would be exposed longer with each passing, which gave him time to counterattack, but she still had the advantage of speed and stealth. So, she took a deep breath and charged, and he caught her in his periphery.  
Yuffie leaped again and hurled a block of ice toward him. He punched through it in a spray of frost and followed that initial blow with another punch to her gut. Yuffie grunted, spittle flying from her lips as the air was knocked from her, and then she was weightless. The ice materia left her hands, but she held tightly to the other materia she had ready. Focusing on it, she sent an arc of electricity from her palms and into his big, chisel chested.  
She dropped the materia when she landed and slid to a stop. Her limbs felt weak and tired. Her stomach throbbed. She coughed, hard, and kept coughing until she could breathe again. Across the room, Hollis was up and stampeding toward her. She scrambled to her feet and slipped away, darting between machines before he could reach her.  
He came to a stop where she had been and roared. “Hit and run,” he said, turning slowly and staring out at what was left of the room. Then, ripping a computer from the ground, he tossed it into the wall as he screamed again. “You can’t be beat in a fair fight, so you play these little games. Run and hide and shoot me with materia. Think you’re clever?” He paused long enough to reach into his pocket and produced the jammer, which he clicked on. The materia in her hands went inert. “Now, what will you do with your tricks stolen from you?”  
Yuffie came to a stop in the corner across the room and held there, breathing slowly through the burning in her stomach. He was working slowly at clearing the room again, barking insults as he went. The names he called her would have been enough to bring her right back to him if she wasn’t nearly in tears from their last confrontation.  
With the jammer in play, he was right about one thing: she couldn’t win. In fact, she wasn’t even a threat. Above, she imagined Daisy pinned down from enemy fire, taking careful shots and shielding her eyes from the sun as she lined up. The Lotus would be escaping already or otherwise holding the landing platforms for Hollis’ return. They might have even taken W.R.O. hostages. Yuffie had to win, and that meant one thing.  
Yuffie had to steal the jammer.  
Another deep breath, and she pushed herself to kneeling. The room drifted slowly in her vision and, even without the draw of the materia taxing her, Yuffie was running on fumes. The blow to her gut had left her winded, and she felt like it would take a week to catch her breath. Whatever she did, the battle was coming to an end, and she still had the surface to deal with.  
She checked her last four materia and the held four materia tightly in her hands and took the deepest, quietest breath she could, and then she closed her eyes and centered herself. She put herself passed the pain, passed the fear, and she thought only of one thing—the final charge.  
Yuffie approached again, moving cautiously. He was moving toward her this time, sweeping his way through, dislodging everything in his path. She kept her eyes fixed on him this time, not trusting her other senses to get her through. Pain was distracting her, pulling her away whenever she gave it the chance. Then, he was before her, back turned as he tossed away a table and shouted another obscenity.  
He stomped forward, toward something else, and she moved. Her legs locked briefly, fingers aching, breath caught in her throat. She felt sick and afraid, and her stomach ached in phantom pain, but she caught him by surprise, and she got her hands on the jammer and just got it free from his grip before he noticed her. He turned about and brought his fist down on her, and the flooring dented, screws rising from the foundation as Yuffie leaped away from him.  
Flash! The air hardened around him, a sheet of ice holding him to the floor. He grunted and flexed, the frost fracturing around his torso as he pulled himself free, but not in time. Yuffie had already discarded ice and pressed two materia into his flesh. The poison burned as it seeped into his skin, dulling his senses and slowing his reactions. Confusion knocked him off balance as the world swirled around him.  
She dropped those two and clutched her last materia—purple in color—tightly in her hand. This one didn’t draw on her, but she drew on it, feeling the raw, elemental strength of the ancients flowing through her, imbuing her with the vigor needed. She planted her feet, bowing the steel as she did, and she put everything she had into this final strike—the deathblow.  
Hollis didn’t have time to meet her; he couldn’t even see her, but he felt her tiny fist drive into his chest and the bones fractures in response. He didn’t fly but stumbled back a few feet before collapsing into unconsciousness. Yuffie stood over him, just as breathless as he was, but she considering standing the real victory.  
Frost clung to his face, knotting his sideburns. Poison left his skin discolored, his veins throbbing and pulsing as it spread through him, and she could only imagines the things he would see if he were conscious, but he wasn’t. She put her foot on his big, beefy chest, and she smiled, and then she laughed.  
Her legs quaked, and she stumbled back into a nearby cart, holding it for support. More deep breaths, and she steadied herself. Then, she looked over at the jammer before pocketing it for later use. This battle was won, but a war was being waged above.  
She started toward the elevator.


	15. Disc One, Mission 14

Off-Short W.R.O. Facility: Surface\  
The wait was unbearable. Yuffie called the elevator and watched its slow decent, listened as the gears ground slowly to life. She found a cure materia and used it to ease her wounds while she had the time and, when the elevator finally arrived, dropped the materia beside her and climbed onto it. She didn’t wear the Lotus uniform anymore. By that point it would be impossible to hide.  
She pressed the button on the platform and felt the elevator lurch. The soldiers which were scattered there before had left. A few materia carts were still there, tipped and stripped of their contents. She found a handful of materia left behind in each but none that were as good as those waiting for her on the surface.  
On the way there were shallow cracks in the glass tubing. A battle had raged, she was sure. Maybe Daisy caught them on the way up. Maybe she won. Maybe she lost. Yuffie began pacing to keep herself busy and to keep herself from screaming for the elevator to move faster.  
On the surface she found Daisy, left unconscious beside the elevator opening, gun dismantled, burn marks across the uniform they left her in. A lone helicopter, black and green in color, made elegant circles around the platform. Even from so far down below, Yuffie could see Oliver hanging out the door, watching her as she watched him.  
Yuffie screamed and went for her hiding spot, finding her shuriken there and throwing it with all of her strength. It twirled through the air, following the helicopter’s gentle arc and leaving a thin gash across its outer plating. After making contact, the shuriken spiraled through the air and slid to a stop a few feet away.  
The helicopter broke its pattern and sailed away, and Yuffie fell to her knees. She had betrayed the W.R.O., sailed out into the middle of the ocean on a stolen boat, infiltrated the facility, and Oliver still got away. Hollis was some consolation, as were the captured Lotus, but she wasn’t sure it was worth it.  
She took a deep breath then and wiped her eyes, and she pushed herself back to standing and told herself that it was done. She told herself that whatever else it might have been, it had to be worth it, and then she went and fetched her shuriken before going to Daisy.  
Daisy was breathing and not injured badly. Judging from the placement of the burns, as well as the lack of damage to her skin, she had been healed afterward and left unconscious. Whatever the Lotus were doing, Oliver didn’t want Daisy involved. Yuffie wondered if he lied to keep her safe and told his allies that Daisy was dead.  
“Yuffie?” Daisy opened her eyes slowly and winced. With Yuffie’s help she sat up, and she had to shake her head clear before she could speak again. “Oliver!” She reached for her guns and found them in pieces beside her. “What in the...Yuffie! Where is he? Where is Oliver?”  
Yuffie stood and looked out toward the sea, where the helicopter had disappeared. “He got away. Thanks for that, by the way.”  
Daisy’s jaw went tight. She collected her guns and began putting them back together.  
“Hollis, on the other hand. Well, let’s just say, I put him down. Hard.”  
“Well, at least...” The elevator groaned and started its slow crawl down. Both Yuffie and Daisy stopped and watched it disappear from view, and then Daisy looked up at Yuffie. “You put him down, huh?”  
Yuffie grimaced. “Oh. You have GOT to be kidding me!”  
Yuffie stood before the elevator while Daisy went into hiding. The asphalt beneath them shuddered as the elevator groaned to the surface. It stopped loudly, steel locking into place and holding the heavy cement platform steady with Hollis at its center, bruised and crazed, and snarling like a beast.  
She held her shuriken beside her at the ready. The materia glowed dimly, but it was all she could do to keep it attuned. The battle below had left her drained of energy, and she hadn’t the time to recover even an ounce of her strength. Hollis looked in an equally bad way, swaying before her. Beneath his sneer, though, he managed to smile. It was little more than a flashing of teeth.  
“You know, if you lay down and pretend to be unconscious, I’ll play along,” Yuffie said, and he grunted toward her and started laughing.  
“You think you’ve won. You think that you’re stronger than me! But I’m a survivor, you little bitch! I AM HOLLIS!”  
“Yes, yes you are. And you’ve lost. So, play dead before I have to make you dead for real.”  
From behind her, Daisy came out of hiding, weapons ready. Hollis looked crazed to her, more a wild animal than a person by this point. She could see something burning in his eyes, feel heat swelling around him as he staggered forward. The cement was melting under his feet.  
“Don’t worry, Dais. He’s got nothing.”  
Daisy cocked her guns and kept them steady. “Yuffie, I’m not so sure.”  
“He’s big, but he’s dumb, and he...”  
Hollis started flowing. Heat distorted the world around him, folding the light and blurring it. His body shifted like the tide as it rose into the air. The hairs of his face and chest sizzled and cindered as he opened his right hand, exposing burnt, blackened flesh and a large, red materia shining brightly.  
“You think it’s over? Fine! If I die, so do you!” The materia floated over his head, and he held his hands up, as if trying to control it, but the light it cast was too much. It swallowed him in roaring flames. From within the flames he shouted, “Come, Neo Ifrit!”  
A burning light appeared, the materia its origin, and burned runes into the sky. Smooth, writhing circles appeared all around Hollis swallowed in light, and smoking sigils blaze into being. Nearby boxes erupt into flames. The air around the facility sizzled and steamed. The runes then shattered, and Neo Ifrit appeared.  
It landed on the platform in front of them, demonic in appearance, grey skin stretched tightly across its muscular body. It stood on two goat-legs. Black ivory horns jutted from its crown, flames rolling and writhing across their gentle curves as they boed in the back. More of this ivory sprouted from its shoulders. Flames crawled across its body, blue on the surface and white against its flesh. The cement beneath its feet bubbled and popped, and Yuffie could hardly keep her eyes open as she stared at it.  
The steel canisters beside it softened and collapsed. Each step left a trail of liquid stone, orange in color. High above, Hollis laughed dry as his skin blackened and flaked. “This is it,” he said, “This is the end! True power in the hands of the people! Enough to topple even the W.R.O.!”  
Bits of steel fell into the ocean, steaming as it made contact. Yuffie and Daisy took refuge at a distance, hiding out of sight behind a large, metal beam. The heat was pervasive; the steam in the air made it worse. It was hard to breathe and harder to see, but at the center Hollis blazed like a small sun. Neo-Ifrit moved forward dutifully, seemingly without purpose, just content to burn.  
“Yuffie! What do we do?” Daisy was shaking. Her guns were hot in her hands and growing hotter with each passing second  
“We’re going to...to...” Yuffie wiped sweat from her bow and peeked around the beam. It was hard to look straight into the light. Even with the steam fogging her vision, Hollis and his summon shined so brightly that it hurt. Vaguely, she could see Hollis’ form, hanging slack, suspended by the magic. She sat back. “I think Hollis is down, which means the summon is out of control. We need to stop the summoning, even destroy the materia if we can. Most of all, we need to get it from Hollis.”  
Daisy nodded and lifted her guns. “I could distract it?”  
“No. With the heat it is giving off your bullets will melt before they even land.”  
“Right.” Daisy paused, stared. “Wait, how in the world would you even know that?”  
A weak smile. “I’ve fought my fair share of beasties over the years.”  
Daisy groaned.  
“Hey, we can do this.” Yuffie spied a W.R.O. sniper rifle with a gutted sniper beside it in the distance. “And I know exactly how. You’re a good shot, right? What am I saying? Of course you are! Get that rifle and get as far away as possible. Train it on the materia and, whatever you do, don’t fire until you see the signal.”  
“Okay.” Daisy holstered her guns and started away. She stopped and turned to Yuffie, taking her by the hand. “Wait, what’re you going to do?”  
“I’m going to distract it?”  
“How?”  
“You’ll find out when I do.”  
“Okay. And the signal?”  
Yuffie laughed. “Hadn’t thought that far ahead. I’ll find out when you do.”  
“This is crazy.”  
“This’ll work.”  
Daisy took a deep breath, squeezed Yuffie’s hand. “Good luck.”  
Yuffie winked. “Don’t miss.”  
They parted.  
Neo-Ifrit stalked the surface. The area around it was burning and warping, parts of it sinking down and collapsing into the boiling water below. Boxes blazed or melted into piles of burning plastic and ash. The entire facility was ablaze.  
Within the smoke was a flash of light and shards of ice came sailing in. They melted harmlessly despite their magic. More followed, each larger than the last, but none had the intended effect.  
Yuffie appeared above, sailing through the smoke. Magic gleamed around her body, heat eating at her barrier, which did its best to protect her. Her skin was pink and raw and sweat beaded and fell from her, glistening on descent and sizzling as it made contact with the air. She landed behind Neo-Ifrit, feet sinking into the boiling cement, and fired an arc of lightning that danced across the hair on the beast’s back.  
It turned, regarded her, roared, and charged. Flames kicked from its heels as it rocketed forward, leaving a trail of smoke in its wake. Yuffie flipped to one side, found hold on a wilting bar of steel, and ran up the side of it, leaping through the air to another bar, this one connected to a crane, and sprinted along its length, too.  
The metal was soft enough that it bowed beneath her feet. Hollis glowed just above her and, from where she was, she could see him. The oppressive heat distorted the light all around the facility, casting prisms and warping the area into a city of cinder and smoke. The glow of the materia had nearly burned away the surface of Hollis’ skin and started on the layers underneath. His head was lulled, but the magic was still there, drawing succor from his life force.  
Another roar, and Neo-Ifrit followed her into the air. She ran higher, away from it, but the crane was sundered by the beast’s approach. As it fell from under her, she jumped and made a lazy spiral before grabbing hold of the materia with her bare hand. Even with the barrier her skin began to blister.  
She braced against Hollis, using his burnt shoulders as foundation as she pulled up on the materia. It was held in place, locked by ancient seals that scalded her flesh for the effort. Finally, with a grunt, she managed to dislodge it and toss it into the air, and as she did, she screamed Daisy’s name.  
BOOM! The bullet dissolved on the way. Neo-Ifrit followed the materia in the air and caught it, cradling it with both hands. As it reached acme, Yuffie used the last of her strength to jump. Heat and flame peeled away at her barrier, and Yuffie felt the very last of her strength going. Clutching the jammer tightly in her hand, she turned it on. “One last time!”  
Yuffie watched the bullet pass her. She watched the graceful spiral it made, carrying it through the air, watched it make contact with the materia and chip the surface, watched it drill into the very core of it, and watched as Neo-Ifrit flickered and faded in an explosion of fire. Then, she fell.  
Her skin burned. All of her burned. Then, she was in water. It made the burns across her flesh come to life. She opened her mouth to scream and was instead greeted by a lung full of heat. Her vision dimmed. She remembered seeing the fading light, the falling body, and the lingering flames. Then, nothing at all.

-Disc One-

Yuffie woke up coughing, the salty sea water being forced from her lungs. She hurt everywhere, but some pains were worse than others. Then she tried to move, and then everything hurt equally. She opened her eyes to find smoke and fog and people all around her. A medic was tending to her and Daisy. Nearby, more medics scrambled to save what few Lotus and W.R.O. had survived to this point.  
Two men lifted Yuffie onto a gurney and then lifted the gurney. They wore white uniforms with W.R.O. patches on their sleeves. She could smell burning flesh and, after a few seconds, realized it was her. They took her to a nearby helicopter and fixed her onto it. The medic who was attending to her returned and checked her eyes.  
“Sir, she’s awake.”  
“Good.” Reeve stepped into view. He was wearing a military assault vest with a W.R.O. patch sewed across the chest. He had a gun strapped around his shoulder. Judging from the look of it, they didn’t see combat. As he approached, he looked her over, looking worried and exasperated, and that is when she knew that she had won. She smiled at him as best she could, and he frowned in return. “I hope you’re happy with yourself.”  
“Always,” she said. “Where’s Daisy?”  
“She’s alive. Injured, but not as severely as you are.” He sighed and smoothed back his hair. Then, he traced his beard with his fingers. Above an airship drifted into view, blocking the sunlight. The smoke and fog cleared as it hovered overhead, exposing swollen balls of once-molten steel. The air still felt warm.  
Reeve sighed. “Yuffie, you have no idea what you’ve done here.”  
“I stopped them.”  
“You destroyed an important W.R.O. facility.”  
“I destroyed a Shinra facility that had a W.R.O. makeover. And how long have we been doing things like that by the—ow.” She tried to move but found herself strapped in place, so she settled for glaring at him. “Reeve, what is happening here?”  
His frown deepened. “Yuffie. I’m sorry, but you’ve done something unforgivable, and I can’t turn a blind eye to it. Between this and the attack on HQ…”  
“I had to do this.”  
“You could have trusted me with this.”  
“Yeah, because trusting you has gotten me so far.”  
“You’ve crossed a line!”  
“You started over the line!”  
“Yuffie!” They both went quiet. Around them, people worked diligently. The airship glided out of view. The sunlight returned, and the smoke and fog with it. His jaw was tight, and his eyes steady. “I can’t help you this time. Yuffie, this is a W.R.O. military ship. You’re under arrested for treason against the W.R.O. and the people you swore to protect.”

-Switch to Disc Two-


End file.
